Here are 6 short, but powerful things you should know:

1. Lowes E-Commerce Boom: E-commerce Sales Top Revenue Producer – 15.7%

Online sales for Lowes were their top income generator.

It’s been a tough downward market for Lowes, but e-commerce helped the bottom line.

Sales increased 0.2% in the second quarter of 2026.

Online sales were up 15.7%.

2. Google AI Mode: Stopped Showing Any Organic Listings for Shopping Searches

Google’s Search AI Mode stopped showing organic listings and now is only showing ads.

The organic listings that used to sit next to the sponsored ones are gone. It’s part of Google’s efforts to monetize AI mode results.

3. Top 15 States with Data Centers

Virginia, Texas and Georgia lead the country in planned data centers.

Number of data centers in each state operating or being built.

1 Virginia 685
2 Texas 466
3 California 331
4 Illinois 282
5 Georgia 235
6 Ohio 223
7 Arizona 184
8 New York 154
9 Oregon 142
10 Washington 135
11 Pennsylvania 129
12 Florida 128
13 North Carolina 113
14 Iowa 105
15 Indiana 92

 

4. 31% of Teens Trust AI Over Friends

Mastercard surveyed 26,000 parents and teens, finding that 31% of teens trust an AI product recommendation more than a friend’s recommendation.

Also:

  • 23% trust AI more than their parents’ advice.
  • 62% of teens use AI monthly for product research versus 49% of parents.
  • 27% use a fully AI-run shopping assistant compared with 16% of parents.

This is the prospect and customer base you’ll be selling to in five years.

5. Longer Used Searches Converting Better Than Short Key Words

Longer word searches convert better than short key words.

Marketers are seeing one-and two-word keywords converting worse than they used to.

A recent Search Engine Land analysis found the share of Google Ads impressions from short keywords fell from 42% to 24% since January 2025. However, three- and four-word searches more than doubled their conversion share to 46%.

Even queries were better.

Your prospects are searching in full sentences now.

If your ad copy and landing pages are written for keywords… did you adjust to longer word searches?

Longer searches give you more information about the product or service they really want and their purchase intent.

6. Top Rated Cable News Networks

Fox News had 13 out of the 15 of the most-watched cable news shows of the week, The Five was the largest with 3.262 million viewers at 5 p.m. ET.

Prime Time:

Fox News MS NOW CNN
Total Viewers 2,027,000 937,000 611,000
A25-54 169,000 80,000 113,000

 

Total Day:

Fox News MS NOW CNN
Total Viewers 1,257,000 596,000 400,000
A25-54 104,000 56,000 61,000