Canada-U.S. Trade Deal Could Cut Auto, Steel and Aluminum Tariffs
Canada and the United States still don’t have a signed trade agreement. But Canadian businesses now have a more concrete view of what a deal could change. The framework being …
News
Shopify’s August 26 Deadline Could Break Your Conversion Tracking
Shopify’s August 26, 2026 deadline isn’t just a checkout cleanup date. For non-Plus stores still using legacy Thank You and Order Status page customizations, it’s a tracking, attribution, app, and …
U.S. retail sales fell 0.6% in July, but these categories still found demand
U.S. retail and food services sales fell 0.6% in July, according to the Census Bureau’s August 14 advance report. Sales came in at $763.6 billion, down from a revised $768.1 …
AI search favors listicles when buyers compare options
If a potential customer asks an AI tool for the best CRM, accounting platform, marketing agency, or laptop, the answer will often draw from a listicle. Several large studies show …
8 hype lessons from Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday campaign
The first official Avengers: Doomsday trailer hit 503 million views in 24 hours, while premium-format ticket presales reached $16.5 million on day one — five months before the film even …
CISA’s latest warning puts three business systems on alert
CISA added three vulnerabilities affecting Cisco Secure Firewall, Microsoft Windows, and Metabase to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on August 11, 2026. CISA’s catalog separates vulnerabilities with evidence of active …
Marketers in five more countries can now run ads in ChatGPT
OpenAI launched ChatGPT Ads in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea on August 11, 2026. Combined with earlier launches in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, …
Canada unhappy with latest U.S. tariff offer as August 19 deadline nears
U.S. negotiators presented Canada with a proposal Tuesday that would lower some tariffs, though not by as much as Canadian officials wanted, Reuters reported, citing CBC. Canada has not formally …
YouTube is making new creators work twice as hard before sharing ad revenue
Beginning February 1, 2027, new creators will have to clear a much higher bar before they can share in YouTube’s advertising and Premium revenue. The issue is what happens during …
Mark Zuckerberg Says AI Will Create More Jobs—Months After Meta Cut 8,000 Workers
Mark Zuckerberg says AI could ultimately create more employment, even as companies use it to operate with smaller teams. That sounds contradictory. His argument is that it doesn’t have to …
Claude is tattooing every word it writes and you can’t wash it off
If you’ve used Claude to draft an email, polish a blog post, or brainstorm product copy, the text you got back may now carry an invisible mark that identifies it …
Canada’s economy is growing again, but should your business expand right now?
Canada’s economy is growing again after a weak start to 2026. That’s the good news. The harder question for business owners is whether that recovery is strong enough to justify …
Upwork’s numbers explain why freelancers say the platform has changed
The freelance platform’s client base has fallen from its 2023 peak, while spending per remaining client and freelancer-facing monetization products continue to rise. Upwork still has valuable freelance opportunities. But …
Canada’s real-time payments rules take effect August 24
Canada’s long-awaited real-time payments system is moving from policy work to operating rules. On August 24, 2026, the core by-law and rules for Canada’s Real-Time Rail, or RTR, come into …
Google is moving Local Services Ads into Google Ads
Google is moving Local Services Ads into the Google Ads platform, replacing the separate Local Services Ads dashboard with a specialized Performance Max campaign type built around pay-per-lead goals. For …
Canada’s foreign-influence registry starts August 4: some businesses may need to register
Canada’s new foreign-influence registry opens on August 4, 2026. Most businesses won’t need to register, but some companies, consultants, agencies, associations, nonprofits, universities, and advisors should review their work now. …
What Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s marketing campaign can teach you about launching anything
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now in theaters, and the numbers around its launch already tell a story. Vulture cited Variety tracking that put the film’s domestic opening weekend as …
Sam Altman says the AI singularity is already here — is he right?
Sam Altman’s claim sounds absurd if “the singularity” means a superintelligent machine suddenly wakes up, rewrites itself, and outruns human control overnight. But that may not be the version he’s …
Stop panicking after Google updates: what to do before you touch your website
When a Google update rolls out, the worst move is often the one that feels most productive. Changing titles. Rewriting pages. Deleting content. Reworking internal links. Asking three SEO groups …
SharePoint is under siege: what recent attacks mean for your business
SharePoint isn’t a niche IT tool. Microsoft said in March 2026 that SharePoint serves more than 1 billion users each year, with more than 2 billion files uploaded and 2 …
New 50% U.S. tariffs on Canadian products: how businesses should prepare
On July 20, 2026, the White House signed three proclamations that would put a 50% tariff on a broad range of Canadian goods entering the United States. The tariffs are …
Google launches AI Overviews in France after publisher standoff
Google launched AI Overviews and AI Mode in France on July 22, 2026, bringing its AI search products to a market it had left out of earlier European expansions. The …
AliExpress’s €550 million EU fine is a warning for every marketplace seller
The European Commission fined AliExpress €550 million on July 20, 2026, the largest penalty issued under the Digital Services Act so far. The Commission found that AliExpress failed to assess …
A Canadian family of four could spend nearly $1,000 more on food in 2026: what it means for businesses
A Canadian family of four could spend $17,571.79 on food in 2026, up to $994.63 more than in 2025, according to Canada’s Food Price Report. That figure is a forecast …
Google Search Console now tracks social content beyond your website
A TikTok video or Instagram post may already be appearing in Google without you knowing which query put it there. Search Console can now show you. Google introduced platform properties …
Meta just made ad creation 10x faster & it’s a problem
Making Meta ads is about to get much faster. The risk is that a false claim, off-brand image or expired offer can multiply just as quickly. Meta is building an …
Back-to-school spending forecasts conflict. Value is the clear signal
Two U.S. back-to-school surveys published days apart point in opposite directions. Deloitte expects planned K-12 spending to hold roughly flat in dollars and fall after inflation. JLL expects the average …
World Cup semifinals start at 3 p.m. ET: make a business plan
France plays Spain on Tuesday, July 14. England plays Argentina on Wednesday, July 15. Both World Cup semifinals kick off at 3 p.m. Eastern time, placing both matches inside the …
Your loan rate probably isn’t changing Wednesday but your forecast should
Canada’s policy rate is widely expected to stay at 2.25% on Wednesday, July 15. For business owners, the immediate effect would be straightforward: prime-linked loans and lines of credit probably …
CRA login required for online business registration starting July 14
Starting Tuesday, July 14, 2026, you’ll need to sign in to your CRA account before you can use Business Registration Online (BRO). That’s the Canada Revenue Agency service used to …
Your USD bills just got $500 more expensive and nobody sent you a notice
The Canadian dollar was hovering near 70 U.S. cents in early July 2026. At the same time, the U.S. declined to give CUSMA the long-term renewal Canada and Mexico wanted. …
GPT-5.6 is here: what it means for your business
OpenAI has made GPT-5.6 generally available, and this release is unusual for two reasons. First, OpenAI says it began with a limited preview for trusted partners after a request from …
68% of Google searches now end without a click, new research shows
For every 1,000 Google searches in the United States during the first four months of 2026, roughly 680 produced no click to any website. Not to a news publisher. Not …
What Canada Day 2026 just told you about your business
Canada Day is over. The fireworks went off, patios filled, staff schedules got tested, and a midweek holiday gave business owners a useful read on where customers are spending now. …
What July 4th spending says about where your customers are headed
America’s 250th birthday gave businesses a useful read on the consumer mood. People still traveled. They still hosted cookouts. They still showed up for fireworks, parades, restaurants, road trips, and …
The Google Ads setting that could double your cost per customer overnight
If your Google Ads Target CPA is set to $10 but the campaign has been getting conversions for $5, that $5 result may be living on borrowed time. Starting August …
You won’t own your PlayStation games anymore — Sony just made it official
If you’ve been buying PlayStation games on disc for years, Sony just put an expiration date on that habit. On July 1, 2026, Sony announced through the official PlayStation Blog …
Canada’s intelligence agencies say AI cyberattacks are months away — one group is already stealing Canadian paycheques
On June 22, 2026, the cybersecurity agencies of the Five Eyes nations issued a joint statement with a warning business owners shouldn’t treat as abstract: frontier AI models could transform …
Shopify’s vape ban is a warning for every online seller
Shopify has given U.S. vape sellers until July 7, 2026, to remove affected products from their stores or risk suspension, according to notices reviewed by Token of Trust. The notice …
Google says “AI SEO” is still SEO — stop paying for fake shortcuts
A new consulting market has formed around getting businesses cited in AI-generated answers. Some of that work is legitimate: tracking AI visibility, correcting inconsistent business information, improving technical SEO, and …
Ontario’s small business tax cut takes effect July 1 — but read the fine print
If you run an incorporated small business in Ontario, you’ve probably heard the headline: the provincial small business tax rate is dropping from 3.2% to 2.2%, effective July 1, 2026. …
What to know before getting a business insurance quote
Before you ask for a business insurance quote, it helps to know what an insurer will need and what risks you’re trying to cover. That preparation can make the quote …
YouTube’s AI detector is live and it doesn’t need your permission
YouTube spent more than two years asking creators to disclose realistic AI-generated or meaningfully altered content themselves. On May 27, 2026, the platform added enforcement behind that request. YouTube can …
Bill C-34 explained: Canada’s new rules for AI chatbots and social media
In February 2026, an 18-year-old walked into a secondary school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, and killed six people before taking her own life. Two more victims — her mother …
Google used your website to replace your website
AI is not the problem. AI can help people research faster, compare ideas, write better, automate work, and make better decisions. Businesses should use it. Governments should use it. Consumers …
The UK just set legal limits on how Google runs search
Google still controls its search engine. But in the UK, parts of that control now have legal limits and deadlines. In June 2026, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) …
A court just ruled Google liable for false AI claims about a business
Google’s AI Overviews don’t merely list search results. They summarize sources, draw conclusions, and present the result at the top of Google Search in a format that looks authoritative. On …
LinkedIn’s creator marketplace is invite-only — but the best part isn’t
LinkedIn has finally built a creator marketplace for B2B. The catch is that most businesses can’t use it yet. The new Creator Marketplace lives inside Campaign Manager, and LinkedIn says …
Google Ads tracking now lives or dies by your consent setup
If you run Google Ads and Google Analytics, your consent setup isn’t a legal detail you can leave buried in the website footer. It’s now one of the most important …
Meta’s AI Business Agent is free — your data is the price
Meta’s new Business Agent looks like an easy win for small businesses: switch it on, let AI answer customer questions, recommend products, book appointments, qualify leads, and hand off tricky …
Google Doesn’t Want You to Leave Google Anymore
When someone clicks a website link, they should leave Google. That shouldn’t be controversial. A search engine’s job is to help people find the best source, then send them there. …