Google has begun to use artificial intelligence in what it calls "sentence compression algorithms" to serve in desktop search results. The idea is to help machines carry out what has traditionally been a simple task for humans.

Brands and agencies said they are challenged with gaining the proper budgets and measuring the return on investments for search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns. The preliminary findings from the 2016 SEMPO State of Search Survey Marketing Report released Tuesday by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) reveal some of the trends that marketers and their agency partners experienced this year.

Purchases from mobile phones on retail sites nearly equaled desktop with an average value of $125 versus $152, respectively, according to data released Monday.

Has Black Friday lost its oomph? It almost feels like Black Friday week. I actually purchased some items on sale two days before Thanksgiving in physical stores. This year I'm on the hunt for deals online to buy in brick-and-mortar stores, rather make the purchase online, which I have not done in the past six years. Why the change of heart?

Google's and Facebook's pledge to stop "fake news" sites publishing initially misleading deceptive articles continues to make headlines, but Dan Greenberg, founder and CEO at Sharethrough, believes "fake news" isn't the only problem today -- and that it's something the ad tech industry has the power to fix.

Local targeting may prove more beneficial during the holiday season than some marketers realize. Data pulled from Verve shows that Black Friday shoppers are seldom willing to travel more than 10 miles, but it really depends on the type of store and what the consumer plans to purchase.

Ecommerce shows interesting dynamics based on devices used for shopping. During the two weeks analyzed, desktop shopping remained flat, while access on mobile phones rose 3 percentage points compared with the same days in 2015. Smartphones took share from tablets, which declined 3 percentage points year-over-year.

Accurate information in directories and reviews will feed data to machines that connect to the Internet, especially information used for local listings. Nearly one third of all Google searches show local intent, and 76% of people who search on their smartphone visit a business within a day, per Moz Local.

Local marketing technology company SweetIQ has launched an integration with local recommendations directory Yelp to help brands optimize and monitor the impact of business listings on in-store foot traffic.

Facebook Wednesday said it has fixed a bug in Page Insights that caused a miscalculation in numbers, and promised to become more forthcoming and open about metrics. As with Google, as more marketers supplement search advertising with social, Facebook vows to increase third-party verification options, build in more metrics, and create a blog where users of its ad services can find detailed information about specific updates and fixes.