Embrace customer obsessions. That's the word from a recently published Forrester Research study, but will obsessions replace or complement the intent signal when it comes to ad targeting?

Some 51% of the 200 U.S. marketing executives at companies generating more than $1 billion in annual revenue said they have a content marketing strategy to support the trend, and in the next year, 30% of those participating in the Accenture Interactive survey said they plan to increase their investment in content creation. Search marketers are increasingly taking responsibility for more media as companies realize the importance of analytics and cross-channel campaigns.

While a hug and a kiss can't be purchased through an ecommerce site or a favorite physical store, moms can still receive the warm-and-fuzzy feeling after being handed the flowers or chocolate gift. Here's a few tips from Microsoft and Hitwise data.

Google Accelerated Mobile Pages -- a collaborative open-source project between dozens of technology companies and publishers to make the mobile Web faster -- officially launched in February, yet less than one-fourth of search engine optimization experts have implemented AMP.

Voice search and chat bots have become amazing tools for advertisers. Yet with the innovation, major risk points to a future with malware and cybercrime becoming more prevalent than physical crimes.

Redesigns don't always work, especially when it comes to ad placement. A lot of effort goes into testing, trial and error. AdGooroo this week published data analyzing the top 20 automotive industry keywords prior- and post- Google's move to eliminate the paid search text advertisements down the right rail of the search engine query page.

Businesses in 2016 will spend an estimated $613 billion for digital marketing services worldwide, triple what was spent in 2008, when Borrell Associates began tracking the data. Brands and agencies in the United States will shell out $65.26 billion this year for search engine optimization (SEO) services.

Helping people share more links to online documents or articles in social networks and on Web sites, platforms such as Microsoft OneDrive and Google Maps integrate URL shorteners that convert long URLs into short ones. A university study found that those shortened URLs can lead to serious security issues by enabling hackers to track people and steal information.

Emma, a neural network, has been in development for the past year. For now this artificial intelligence engine learns from people who teach her accounting practices, how to value securities, and other basics in finance. Shaunak Khire, co-founder at a company yet to be named, and partner at Magha Holdings, a company focused on technology and finance, sees other uses across businesses. He says she's not a bot, but can function like one.

Building out local advertising offerings, Google's home service advertisements are now available to plumbers and electricians, such as heating, ventilating, and air conditioning service providers.