# Ad Tech Briefing: Google is morphing from media to tech, adland braces for impact > Source: > Published: 2026-07-28 04:01:00+00:00 # Ad Tech Briefing: Google is morphing from media to tech, adland braces for impact This Ad Tech Briefing covers the latest in ad tech and platforms for Digiday+ members and is distributed over email every Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET. [More from the series →](https://digiday.com/series/digiday-ad-tech-briefing/) The recent rise of would-be adland challengers, such as OpenAI, and the expected hegemony of the social giant Meta have led to a comparative absence of the name “Google” from headlines in the media landscape as of late. Arguably, that’s just the way leadership at Mountainview likes it, as poring over their ledger books makes for more pleasurable reading than emails [forwarded from their legal](https://digiday.com/topic/google-on-trial/) team as of late, as last week’s earnings disclosure from parent-company Alphabet will attest. Alphabet’s [$120 billion in Q2 revenues](https://abc.xyz/investor/) accounted for a 24% annual increase, putting the much spoken-of $1 billion, or €890 million, fine for breaching the EU’s Digital Markets Act (another [key headline of last week](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_26_1670)) into perspective, with the numbers warranting further inspection, especially if we’re to get an insight into the priorities of Google – still its key engine. Google has never defined itself as an advertising or media company, but to adapt a phrase popularly attributed to adland doyen Martin Sorrell: if the majority of your revenues come from media, then you’re a media company. And the most recent quarterly filings vindicate this notion, with the July 22 filings disclosing advertising revenues of $81.63 billion, or 68% of revenues for the period, representing 14.5% year-on-year growth – more on those comparative growth rates later. Drilling down into the results, we can see that search continues to generate the bulk of its revenues, with Google highlighting that its AI-driven efforts, i.e., Gemini, helped bolster its $63 billion in earnings, outperforming its other advertising divisions during the period (see chart below). Meanwhile, many of the Google antitrust-watchers will note how Google Network, i.e., the very part of the team that’s [awaiting a remedies ruling](https://digiday.com/media/judge-rules-against-google-in-ad-tech-antitrust-case/) from Justice Leonie Brinkema in a Virginia courtroom, is the laggard of this division, in fact, the only department to see business shrink year on year. In the immediate aftermath of the results, equities analysts and high-finance media outlets made much of Alphabet’s ongoing AI investments, or CAPEX, to use their particular parlance, with its stock price stumbling in the short term after the Q2 disclosure; a sign of the fragile faith that Wall Street has in adland. However, a separate comparison of the results table will also likely prove popular among those eager to divine Google’s prospects in the mid- to long-term, i.e., the growth of Google Cloud (82%), which dwarfs that of all other divisions (see chart below). While it may be moot to point out that this $24.77 billion quarterly intake is far below that of market leader Amazon – the e-commerce giant issues [its Q2 earnings on July 30](https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2026/Amazon-com-Announces-First-Quarter-Results/default.aspx), but for context, AWS’ Q1 revenues amounted to $37.6 billion – it’s also worth considering when we take into account the Big Tech pairing’s growing adland rivalry. While there is no direct public evidence that either duo would tie, or *is* tying, benefits on their respective media platforms to customers on their respective cloud computing services, sources have long told Digiday that this area is key to any outfit eager to [rival Google’s long-held dominance of the online media landscape](https://digiday.com/media/cloud-computing-is-the-new-frontier-for-companies-looking-to-get-ahead-of-google/). Doubtless, both offerings have their merits, but as Digiday has long reported, there is a [putative belief among many outside the gates of Big Tech](https://digiday.com/media-buying/ad-tech-briefing-the-open-internets-factions-spar-as-big-tech-players-are-in-a-dead-heat-for-gold/) that such players make policy decisions with their own interests first and foremost, and the fortunes of others are incidental. As a closing aside, perhaps all of this is why Meta, the soon-to-be adland leader, per [eMarketer](https://www.emarketer.com/press-releases/meta-to-surpass-google-in-digital-ad-revenues-for-first-time-ever/), is also [reportedly](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-01/meta-is-building-a-cloud-business-to-sell-excess-ai-compute) rushing to launch its own cloud computing division? ## Numbers to know **Adstra & InterMedia Advertising research finds that: ** **23%:** Residential IPs accurately reached the intended geographic target.**71%:** CTV device identifiers remained consistent over time.**57%:** IP addresses remained consistent over time.**24%:** CTV identifiers were more stable than IP addresses over time. **What we’ve covered*** * The API is still under active development and incubation within the W3C’s Private Advertising Technology Working Group, though it is progressing rapidly through the development stages. It has faced significant debate and scrutiny; read here for more details. **In Graphic Detail: The real impact of creators at the World Cup** Nectar, an agentic community management and social listening platform, pulled together a World Cup Data report across TikTok, Reddit, and Instagram partnerships, which paints a clear picture: Creator-led content dominated the tournament. ## What we’ve heard “A lot of what’s getting called ‘differentiated’ in programmatic is really table stakes dressed up as innovation.” *—Chelsea Consulting’s Greg MacDonald points out how it’s probably more important to target users, as opposed to focusing on identity. * ## What we’re reading **Google lawsuit against SerpAI over scraping search results dismissed ** Google brought claims under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), alleging SerpApi bypassed its anti-bot barrier (“SearchGuard”). The judge dismissed these claims without leave to amend, ruling that Google cannot use copyright law to block scraping of uncopyrighted search result data. **Cindy Rose says WPP agencies stopped using LiveRamp to retain ‘total independence’** The move also draws a line in the sand between two diverging philosophies driving the world’s biggest agencies: WPP and the owner of LiveRamp, Publicis Groupe. Publicis bets that whoever controls the data infrastructure controls the future of advertising, while WPP believes brands will want to retain full ownership of their data as they recognize its value in the era of AI. In the wake of Publicis’ acquisition of LiveRamp, venture firm FirstPartyCapital’s Ciarán O’Kane argues ad tech is evolving beyond its traditional boundaries toward AI-driven data infrastructure serving a broader “$5 trillion attention economy.” The firm contends future winners will prioritize omnichannel data connectivity, sovereignty, and compliance over media optimization, with non-U.S. markets increasingly favoring locally governed technology over global platforms. **Amazon’s Bezos pushes Prime Video redesign focused on AI** The Amazon founder and executive chairman pushed Prime Video head Mike Hopkins to overhaul the streaming service so that AI is front and center, according to four people with direct knowledge of the matter. ### More in Marketing #### [ D+ Research: Brands expand creator marketing strategies ](https://digiday.com/marketing/d-research-brands-expand-creator-marketing-strategies/) Many are partnering with creators to help drive seasonal campaigns, support product launches and, in some cases, even help develop products #### [ OpenAI is already building the org chart of a mature ad business ](https://digiday.com/marketing/openai-is-already-building-the-org-chart-of-a-mature-ad-business/) Two job postings on its careers page suggest OpenAI wants third parties, not just its own sellers, to sell its inventory. #### [ WTF is the IAB’s Redefining Media Types standard? ](https://digiday.com/podcasts/wtf-is-the-iabs-redefining-media-types-standard/) The IAB is trying to solve one of digital advertising’s biggest labeling problems.