Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

In a rare Sunday launch, Google announced new AI Mode ads named Direct Offers. Google also announced branded AI agents and a new open standard for agentic commerce it calls Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

Google’s Robby Stein reiterated that Google’s AI experience, such as AI Mode and AI Overviews, integrates Google’s core search signals. This helps Google provide more useful and helpful responses to users in the AI experiences. But it doesn’t always get it right, as many of you know.

Google Ads seems to be slowly rolling out a new Google Ads experimental feature in the Google Ads Lab section named Brand Linking. Brand linking lets you “Link customers to brands,” it reads.

Google announced new Business Agents, branded AI Agents, a “new way for shoppers to chat with brands, right on Search,” Google said. “It’s like a virtual sales associate that can answer product questions in a brand’s voice, enabling retailers to connect with consumers during critical shopping moments and help drive sales,” Google added.

Google Ads has a new experiment feature for Performance Max campaigns that lets you A/B-test assets. This allows you to compare the performance of 2 different sets of assets within the same asset group to find out which creative combination works best for your Performance Max campaign.