TechCrunch | Swipe Insight

Perplexity offers 34.5 billion to buy Google Chrome and keep it open source

5 days ago

Perplexity offered $34.5 billion to buy Chrome from Google, pledging to keep Chromium open source and invest $3 billion. It will keep Google as Chrome's default search engine. The bid follows DOJ's push to force Google to sell Chrome over monopoly issues. Chrome dominates with 68% market share. Perplexity's offer exceeds its $18 billion valuation and $1.5 billion raised. Perplexity also launched Comet browser and bid to merge with TikTok.

Google Chrome adds AI-powered store summaries to help US shoppers

20 days ago

AI Overviews

Google Chrome will add AI-generated store summaries for U.S. shoppers, showing store reputations on product quality, pricing, service, and returns. Available on desktop, the feature uses reviews from partners like Trustpilot and Bazaarvoice. This aims to enhance shopping safety and compete with Amazon's AI tools. Google is also developing AI agents for Chrome and expanding AI shopping features, including personalized recommendations and virtual try-ons.

Google Discover adds AI summaries risking publisher traffic decline

1 months ago

SEO

Google has launched AI-generated summaries in its Discover news feed on iOS and Android in the U.S., showing multiple publishers' logos and AI summaries for trending topics. This may reduce direct traffic to news sites, worsening publishers' concerns as search traffic and click-throughs decline. Google offers features like Offerwall for revenue but many publishers face steep traffic drops amid AI's rise.

OpenAI set to unveil new AI browser challenging Google Chrome soon

1 months ago

OpenAI

OpenAI plans to release an AI-powered web browser soon to compete with Google Chrome. Similar to Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia, it aims to use AI to change how users browse, keeping some interactions within ChatGPT instead of linking to websites. The browser may feature Operator, OpenAI’s web-browsing AI agent, to offer new user experiences and direct access to user data.

AI marketing workflows made simple

Featured

Markifact is a no-code marketing automation platform that lets users create AI-driven workflows for automating marketing tasks. Users can trigger workflows, connect apps, and track performance through a visual interface. The platform offers pre-built templates, integrates with various marketing tools, and supports team collaboration.

Meta working to fix mass bans hitting Facebook Groups globally

1 months ago

Apple launches AI generated tags in App Store developer beta for better app discovery

2 months ago

ASO

Apple's new AI-generated tags for the App Store are in the iOS 26 developer beta but not yet on the public store or search. Apple uses AI to extract metadata from app descriptions, categories, and screenshots to improve discoverability, replacing manual keyword tagging. Developers can control AI-assigned tags, which are reviewed by humans before going live. Understanding these tags will be key for app discovery once fully implemented.

Meta to automate 90 percent of product risk assessments with AI system

2 months ago

AI Meta

Meta plans to automate up to 90% of product risk assessments for apps like Instagram and WhatsApp using AI, replacing human evaluators. This aims to speed updates by having teams complete questionnaires, with AI providing instant risk evaluations and requirements. While faster, a former executive warns it may increase risks by missing negative effects. Meta says it invests heavily in privacy and uses AI for low-risk decisions, keeping humans for complex cases.

Temu halts shipping from China to U.S. amid rising tariffs and shifts to local fulfillment

3 months ago

Retail Media Ecommerce

Temu has ceased shipping products from China to the U.S. due to new tariffs imposed by President Trump, which ended the de minimis rule and raised tariffs on Chinese goods. Consequently, U.S. shoppers faced high import charges. Temu now only lists products available in U.S. warehouses, marking items from China as out of stock. The company is shifting to a local fulfillment model and actively recruiting U.S. sellers to help local merchants reach more customers.

Meta Faces Trial Over Alleged Use of Pirated Works in AI Training Dataset

5 months ago

AI Meta

A federal judge has allowed an AI copyright lawsuit against Meta to proceed while dismissing part of it. Authors Richard Kadrey and Sarah Silverman allege that Meta used their books to train Llama AI models and removed copyright information to hide infringement. Meta claims its training is fair use. The judge found sufficient grounds for the authors' claims but dismissed their California CDAFA claims, highlighting Meta's copyright practices amid ongoing litigation.