Google Tuesday introduced an updated version of Merchant Center, which offers the same functions, but with more streamlined navigation and easier access to additional Shopping programs. It now allows marketers to discover new ways to apply data to promote and sell products. Google says marketers can use it to to explore new programs like Local Inventory Ads, Merchant Promotions, and Product Ratings, while continuing to manage and configure your product data for Shopping ads.

Rachel Moore gives marketers the pros and the cons to outsource training or keep it in-house. She compares it to other products where a brand may build on a project internally, or purchasing or outsourcing it. She steps through the differences of  digital marketing education and SEO education to give those at the top making decisions on training some fodder on what to expect.

With the Microsoft 10 Anniversary Edition, users can search for information using their voice from the locked screen. Cortana allows users to perform tasks like set timers, track flights or check the traffic. Users can set reminders as well as check the traffic and search in apps.

Google added support for programmatic guaranteed deals to the DoubleClick for Publishers API, allowing advertisers to define the inventory, negotiate with buyers, and traffic all content to DFP using the same method as in the past. 

Microsoft turned up the heat on Google with the latest version of its predictive keyboard app Word Flow, a Microsoft Garage project. The app for iPhone released Tuesday offers Search for GIFs, images, and lots of emoji to assist users in better expressing themselves.

George Freitag analyzes many of the recent changes that Google has been making to its local product and suggests how that will help marketers understand where they are heading with campaigns. He starts by providing details on what has changed, such as categories no longer supported, and how Google provides greater support for local businesses. How does this affect marketers and their campaigns? Freitag explains. 

Apple, Alphabet-owned Google, AT&T, Comcast and other tech companies are joining an Federal Communications Commission task force charged with ending the scourge of automated pre-recorded telemarketing calls. While a “Do Not Call Registry” went into play in 2003, voice over  Internet protocol technology made it easy for scammers operating beyond the U.S. to make long-distance calls that appear to come from within the country. Klint Finley explains.

Microsoft announced Monday the acquisition of Genee, an artificial-intelligence-powered scheduling service, with plans to integrate the intelligence technology into Office 365 and shut down the Genee service on Sept. 1, 2016. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Genee uses natural language processing and optimized decision-making algorithms to interact with a virtual assistant similar to interacting with a human. 

Google pans to gradually phase out support for Chrome apps on every platform except for Chrome OS beginning later this year. The Verge reports that sometime in the second half of 2017, the Chrome Web Store will no longer display Chrome apps at all on those operating systems. in early 2018, Google will no longer allow users to Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, or Linux at all. 

Fredrik Kjolstad is an MIT graduate student in electrical engineering and computer science and first author on a new paper describing a computer language that automatically switches back and forth between two cause-and-effect scenarios. MIT News reports that Kjolstad says the language has applications outside physical simulation, in machine learning, data analytics, optimization, and robotics. What's most interesting is that he and his colleagues have used the language to implement a version of Google’s original PageRank algorithm for ordering search results, and they’re currently collaborating with researchers in MIT’s Department of Physics on an application in quantum chromodynamic that holds atomic …