The monthly “Google System Release Notes” primarily detail what’s new in Play services, Play Store, and Play system update across Android phones/tablets, Wear OS, Google/Android TV, Auto, and PC. Some features apply to end users, while others are aimed at developers.
The following first-party apps comprise the “Google System”:
A feature appearing in the changelog does not mean it’s widely available. Some capabilities take months to fully launch.
Account Management
Security & Privacy
Utilities
Wallet
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
Breaking news for Android. Get the latest on app…
Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com

source

Identify traffic-stealing competitors
Find untapped opportunities
Create outperforming content
mt logo
MarTech » Performance marketing » How to build a long-term, search-first marketing strategy
Chat with MarTechBot
“There are roughly three and a half billion Google searches made every day,” said Craig Dunham, CEO of enterprise SEO platform Deepcrawl, at our recent MarTech conference. “According to research from Moz, 84% of people use Google at least three times a day, and about half of all product searches start with Google. The way that consumers are engaging with brands is changing, and it’s doing so rapidly.”
He added, “Consumers begin their journey with the tool that many of us use hundreds of times a day. Thus, the connection to revenue becomes clear — it starts with search.”
The concept of digital transformation has been around for years, but it’s taken a whole new form in the wake of recent societal shifts. New technologies and the 2020 pandemic have led to a “greater focus on the need to drive optimal digital experiences for our customers,” says Dunham.
A brand’s website is often the first, and most lasting, impression customers will have of your organization. Here are some strategic actions he recommends marketers take to ensure their online properties are optimized for the search-first age.
“The website is a shared responsibility and it requires proper strategic leadership,” Dunham said. “The first step is to take some time and educate yourself, your leadership, your board and your organization so they more broadly promote organic KPIs as business-wide objectives.”
“There’s great data out there on the impact of the efficiency of SEO as a low-cost acquisition channel,” he added.
Aside from sharing communication from Google on the importance of search from a business perspective, marketers can look for case studies from reputable organizations to encourage search prioritization. This can help higher-ups start seeing organic traffic as a key business metric.
“I was in a meeting recently and I had a digital leader say to me that you know website performance should not be an SEO metric — it has to be a business metric,” he said.
“Much of the data and insight generated by CEOs and their tools today are rarely utilized to their full potential,” Dunham said. “This is in part due to SEO not being seen as a business priority. As a result, it’s been siloed — pulling in teams from across the organization breaks down those silos.”
The more team members are involved with search processes, the more they’ll see its impact. People from each department will have more opportunities to contribute to growing online visibility using their unique skillsets.
“We know that businesses that are able to implement these organizational-wide search operations systems and practices — connecting a range of perspectives and search activities that are happening — are going to be the ones that will have a competitive advantage,” said Dunham.
Fuel up with free marketing insights.
Email:
See terms.
More and more brands are turning to automation tools to streamline tasks. According to Dunham, these solutions can be used for search-related activities as well.
“Automation can be well-deployed within web development processes,” Dunham said. “Until recently, this technology didn’t exist.”
Brands now have access to a wide variety of automation tools to streamline SEO-related tasks. The key is to pick solutions that align with your organization’s goals and give you full control over their deployment: “There are additional risk mechanisms that can be put in place to ensure you don’t release bad code that will result in large traffic losses, ultimately driving down revenue across your critical web pages,” said Dunham.
If brands can optimize their internal process, teams and tools around organic search, they’ll increase their chances of achieving long-term success in the search-first digital landscape.
Watch the full presentation from our MarTech conference below.
What is SEO? Search engine optimization encompasses a wide range of marketing activities, including content marketing, user experience strategy, technical analysis, and more, all with the goal of increasing the traffic websites receive from search engines.
What do the tools do? SEO platforms help marketers draw more insights from their work. They offer capabilities such as rank-checking, advanced keyword research, competitive intelligence, and backlink analysis. What’s more, enterprise-level platforms take these functions to new heights with extensive auditing and analysis of page performance, making it easier to find key areas needing improvement.
Why we care. SEO has remained one of the key foundations of digital marketing for years. Search drives roughly 50% of website traffic on average, according to a study on SimilarWeb data by Growth Badger. And while marketers have developed strategies to keep up, SEO’s growing complexity has made this a more complicated marketing discipline that companies cannot afford to ignore.
Dig deeper: What do SEO platforms do and how do they help marketers get found on search engines?
Contributing authors are invited to create content for MarTech and are chosen for their expertise and contribution to the martech community. Our contributors work under the oversight of the editorial staff and contributions are checked for quality and relevance to our readers. MarTech is owned by Semrush. Contributor was not asked to make any direct or indirect mentions of Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
Related stories
New on MarTech
About the author
Related topics
Fuel up with free marketing insights.
See terms.
Coming this fall: Two, one-day virtual events on marketing and AI. Join us for free and learn to reimagine marketing in the age of AI.
Now available: MarTech spring
Sept. 17: Data & AI : MarTech
Nov. 4: AI & Agents: MarTech
Learn actionable search marketing tactics that can help you drive more traffic, leads, and revenue.
Start training now:: SMX Advanced
November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next
March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes
Free 14 day Semrush trial
Get 55+ tools to gain insights and grow your audience.
Zero-Party Data in Action: How Top Brands Turn Product Discovery into Conversions
Stop Paying the Google Tax. Start Winning Paid Search.
The Paid Search Playbook: Attract, Capture, Analyze, and Convert More Leads with AI
Generative AI for Content Creation: A Marketer’s Guide
Email Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
Customer Data Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide
Mastering AI Discoverability
Meet your new AI-powered marketing assistant!
Fuel up with free marketing insights.
Topics
Our events
About
Follow us
© 2025 MarTech.org is a Trademark of Semrush Inc.
Third Door Media is a business-to-business media company. It is the publisher of MarTech and the producer of the MarTech Conference. Third Door Media offers marketing solutions that help vendors connect with an engaged audience of B2C and B2B marketers. The company headquarters is 800 Boylston Street, Suite 2475, Boston, MA USA 02199.

source

by David Dubois, John Dawson and Akansh Jaiswal
Over the past year, consumers have migrated en masse from traditional search engines to Gen AI platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Perplexity. In a survey of 12,000 consumers, 58% (vs. only 25% in 2023) reported having turned to Gen AI tools for product/service recommendations. Another study reported a 1,300% surge in AI search referrals to U.S. retail sites during the 2024 holiday season.
Explore HBR
HBR Store
About HBR
Manage My Account
Follow HBR
Harvard Business Publishing:
Copyright ©2025 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.

source

In the fast-evolving world of digital marketing, companies are grappling with an explosion of specialized tools that promise efficiency but often deliver chaos. As of 2025, the sheer volume of available marketing technologies—now exceeding 15,000 according to recent analyses—has led to what insiders call “tool sprawl,” where teams juggle dozens of platforms, resulting in fragmented data, skyrocketing costs, and diminished productivity. This phenomenon isn’t new, but it’s intensifying amid AI-driven innovations, forcing industry leaders to rethink their tech stacks.
For many organizations, the root of the problem lies in unchecked adoption. Marketing departments, eager to leverage the latest in automation, analytics, and personalization, accumulate tools without a unified strategy. A report from HubSpot’s blog highlights how this sprawl can lead to siloed information, where customer insights get trapped in disparate systems, complicating campaign execution and measurement.
Navigating the Overload of Choices
Compounding the issue are economic pressures and rapid tech advancements. Small businesses, in particular, face steep challenges, as noted in a 2024 piece from Capsule CRM, which points out that limited budgets exacerbate the inefficiencies of managing multiple vendors. Industry insiders report that teams spend up to 30% of their time just switching between apps, a drain that’s especially acute in a post-pandemic era of remote work and hybrid teams.
Moreover, the integration of AI has accelerated sprawl. As detailed in the Chief Martec’s 2025 supergraphic, while AI-native tools are proliferating, they’re often layered onto existing setups without proper consolidation, creating a “hypertail” of custom solutions that further fragments operations.
Strategies for Consolidation and Efficiency
To combat this, forward-thinking companies are turning to stack rationalization. One effective approach involves conducting regular audits to identify redundant tools and prioritize those that integrate seamlessly. Experts from MarTech.org emphasize the “new normal” of simultaneous growth and shrinkage in tech ecosystems, advocating for modular architectures that allow for easy swapping of components.
Solutions also include investing in unified platforms that centralize functions like CRM, email marketing, and analytics. For instance, Improvado’s 2025 trends report underscores the rise of all-in-one suites powered by AI, which can automate data syncing and reduce the need for multiple logins, potentially cutting costs by 20-40%.
Embracing AI and Privacy in Tool Management
Privacy regulations add another layer of complexity, as marketers must ensure tools comply with GDPR and CCPA while avoiding data silos. Posts on X from industry figures like Neil Patel highlight 2025 trends toward multi-platform optimization, where AI helps streamline compliance without adding more tools.
Innovative firms are also leveraging predictive analytics to forecast tool needs, preventing sprawl before it starts. A January 2025 analysis by Rolanda Gregory warns of shifting consumer expectations, urging marketers to adopt agile frameworks that incorporate AI for personalization without over-relying on fragmented tech.
Building Resilient Tech Stacks for the Future
Ultimately, solving tool sprawl requires cultural shifts within organizations. Leadership must foster cross-functional collaboration to align on tech decisions, as suggested in Martech Zone’s December 2024 overview of 2025 challenges, which includes solutions like dedicated martech roles to oversee stack health.
Looking ahead, the key is balance: embracing innovation while pruning excess. As Pyxl’s February 2025 insights note, businesses that master this will not only cut costs but also enhance agility, turning potential chaos into competitive advantage in an AI-dominated era. Insiders agree that with deliberate strategies, the sprawl of 2025 can be tamed, paving the way for more focused, effective marketing operations.
Subscribe for Updates
The AdvertisingSmallBiz Email Newsletter is tailored for small business owners and marketers looking to grow their brand. Get the insights you need to drive big results for your small business.
Help us improve our content by reporting any issues you find.
Get the free daily newsletter read by decision makers
Get our media kit
Deliver your marketing message directly to decision makers.

source

The piecemeal beta rollout of M3 Expressive (M3E) in the Google Phone app continues with version 185.
Google is using M3 Expressive as an opportunity to revamp how the Phone app is organized, with iOS 26 amusingly also doing the same thing with its big Liquid Glass redesign this year.
The “Favorites” tab is being merged with “Recents” and is now just a carousel at the top of that feed, which is being renamed “Home.” Google is getting rid of the dialer FAB (floating action button) in favor of a “Keypad” tab in the bottom bar. “Voicemail” is unchanged, with the other big change being a navigation drawer that now houses Contacts, Settings, Clear call history, and Help & feedback.
Those navigation updates started rolling out last month for some beta users. Some testers have the old app layout but Material 3 Expressive redesign (with containers for the Home list), while others have both aspects for a somewhat chaotic rollout. 
L-R: Nav updates, M3E redesign, & both
With beta version 185, more Material 3 Expressive is rolling out. A device of ours that just had the navigation updates now has the M3E redesign.
Meanwhile, this also includes wide availability of the M3E Settings page where you can set the Incoming call gesture to Horizontal swipe or Single tap, while the in-call interface makes use of the latest shapes.
The Home and Keypad tabs with the navigation drawer are not yet widely available, but those that still have the FAB will notice rounded top corners for that bottom sheet.
Hopefully, the stable rollout will be a bit more straightforward and happen in one go. Be sure to share what you’re seeing as of Phone by Google 185:
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:
Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com

source