Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA https://bostonmadeinc.com/ News, announcements and stories from Boston Made, Inc. and its companies. Sun, 25 Oct 2026 20:59:48 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.3 https://bostonmadeinc.com/brand-kit/fav/bostonmade/favicon-32.png?v=4 Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA https://bostonmadeinc.com/ 32 32 Flying Cars Are Getting Real: Where Air Taxis Stand in October 2026, and the Math That Lifts Them https://bostonmadeinc.com/flying-cars-are-getting-real-where-air-taxis-stand-in-october-2026-and-the-math-that-lifts-them/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 20:07:13 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/flying-cars-are-getting-real-where-air-taxis-stand-in-october-2026-and-the-math-that-lifts-them/ Joby Aviation S4 electric air taxi on a taxiway at Edwards Air Force Base, CaliforniaJoby flew real routes over Dallas–Fort Worth in September, Archer named a Texas network in October and BETA joined seven of eight federal pilot programs. None is FAA-certified yet. Here is where things stand, with the four equations that decide whether a flying car works.

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Electric air taxis are no longer only renderings. In September 2026, an electric air taxi flew real routes over Dallas–Fort Worth under a federal pilot program. Three U.S. developers, Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation and BETA Technologies, are flying aircraft designed for commercial service. None has an FAA type certificate for them yet. Here is where things stand, what the companies themselves have said, and the physics and math that decide whether a “flying car” can work.

What actually happened in 2026

  • A federal pilot program started. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the FAA picked the first participants in the eVTOL Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) in March 2026. The FAA lists eight participating governments: the Florida, Utah, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania transportation departments, Louisiana DOTD, the City of Albuquerque and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The FAA says the program “does not bypass certification” and is expected to run for three years after the first project becomes operational.
  • Joby Aviation flew in North Texas. From September 10 to 14, 2026, Joby flew a week-long campaign around Dallas–Fort Worth under TxDOT’s Project Nexus. The flights covered Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, a landing inside DFW Airport’s controlled airspace, a round trip to Arlington and the planned route to Toyota Motor North America’s Plano campus (Hillwood press release, Sept. 10, 2026).
  • Joby is in the last certification stage. Joby’s first FAA-conforming aircraft, registration N547JX, began flight testing in March 2026 (Joby press release, March 11, 2026). Joby’s Q2 2026 shareholder letter (Aug. 5, 2026) says the company has reached “the fifth and final stage” of FAA type certification. It reported $38.6 million in quarterly revenue and a $245.4 million net loss.
  • Archer named its Texas network. On October 23, 2026, Archer Aviation said it plans air taxi service linking the Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston and Austin areas. It would use its four-passenger Midnight aircraft on flights of 10 to 20 minutes. Archer did not give a start date, and Midnight has not received FAA type certification (AIAA, Oct. 23, 2026).
  • BETA Technologies was picked for the most programs. BETA said it was selected for seven of the eight eIPP launch programs, more than any other electric aircraft developer. It plans cargo and medical logistics with its ALIA aircraft, starting with conventional takeoff and landing (BETA press release, March 9, 2026).
BETA Technologies ALIA electric aircraft delivered to the U.S. Air Force at Duke Field, Florida
BETA Technologies’ ALIA at Duke Field, Florida, on its delivery to the U.S. Air Force for testing, Oct. 26, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Jennifer Bryant (public domain).

The math of a flying car

A car only has to push itself forward. A vertical-takeoff aircraft first has to hold its whole weight up on air. Four short equations show why that is hard, and why designers lift off on rotors and then cruise on wings. The numbers below are a worked example for an imaginary 2,000 kg aircraft. They are not any company’s published figures.

1. Thrust to hover

T = m · g

With m = 2,000 kg and g = 9.81 m/s², the rotors must push down about 19.6 kN, about the weight of a mid-size SUV, without any help from wings.

2. Power to hover (momentum theory)

Pideal = T3/2 ÷ √(2ρA)

ρ is air density (1.225 kg/m³ at sea level) and A is the total area swept by the rotors. With 30 m² of rotor disk, the ideal answer is about 320 kW. Real rotors lose some of that. Dividing by a typical efficiency (“figure of merit”) of 0.7 gives roughly 460 kW, about the output of several family cars at full throttle. Bigger rotor area means less power, which is why these aircraft have so many propellers.

3. Why they switch to wings

L = ½ ρ v² S CL

At 150 mph (67 m/s), a wing of about 14 m² with a lift coefficient of 0.5 carries the same 19.6 kN. The power then falls to weight × speed ÷ lift-to-drag ratio. With a lift-to-drag ratio of 10 and 85% drivetrain efficiency, cruise needs about 155 kW, a third of the hover figure.

4. The battery budget for a 25-mile hop

E = Pcruise · tcruise + Phover · thover

Ten minutes of cruise at 155 kW is about 26 kWh. Two minutes of hovering at 460 kW for takeoff and landing adds about 15 kWh, for roughly 41 kWh plus reserves. At 250 Wh per kilogram of battery, that energy alone weighs about 165 kg. This is why short hops, fast charging and lighter batteries decide the business case.

Try it yourself: open Tools → Flight in the bar at the bottom of this page. Change the mass, rotor area or air density and the hover equations update as you type. Tools also has a trip-cost calculator comparing gas and electric, plus loan, savings and equation solvers.

What it means for Massachusetts

None of the eIPP projects named so far are in Massachusetts. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s application covers operations across New England, according to Joby’s March 9, 2026 announcement. For Boston-area businesses, the near-term effects are likely to show up first in cargo and medical logistics, the work BETA and its partners are targeting. Passenger air taxis come after that. Watch for three things: FAA “for credit” test flights, the first type certificate, and local vertiport and noise rules.

What to watch next

  • Whether Joby or Archer receives an FAA type certificate. Neither has one yet.
  • More eIPP flights in the other participating states, and the data the FAA says it is collecting from them.
  • Start dates for Archer’s Texas network, which it has not announced.

Sources

Photos: U.S. Air Force photos by Harlan Huntington (Joby S4, Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 20, 2023) and Jennifer Bryant (BETA ALIA, Duke Field, Oct. 26, 2023), both public domain via Wikimedia Commons. The worked example uses textbook physics and round, illustrative inputs. It does not describe any company’s aircraft. This article is for information only and is not investment advice.

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DiPietro’s First Shutout, Pastrnak’s Four Points: Bruins Rout Predators 6-0 to Run Point Streak to Seven https://bostonmadeinc.com/bruins-predators-6-0-dipietro-shutout-2026/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/?p=92493 hockey arenaBoston is 8-2-1 and 6-0-1 over its last seven. Charlie McAvoy added four assists as the Bruins scored six for the third time this season.

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The Bruins are rolling, and Michael DiPietro finally got the night he’d been waiting for.

DiPietro stopped all 28 shots he faced for his first NHL shutout as Boston beat the Nashville Predators 6-0 at TD Garden. The win runs the Bruins’ point streak to seven games (6-0-1) and lifts them to 8-2-1, coming off a 3-0-1 road trip.

How the goals came

  • Casey Mittelstadt opened the scoring less than four minutes in.
  • Elias Lindholm scored on the power play late in the first.
  • David Pastrnak and JJ Peterka scored in the second.
  • Mark Kastelic and Pastrnak, with his second, closed it out in the third.

The stat lines

Pastrnak finished with two goals and two assists, his 20th career four-point game. Only seven other players in Bruins history have done that. Charlie McAvoy had four assists from the blue line, and Pavel Zacha added two. It was Boston’s third six-goal game of the young season.

Nashville, now 3-3-3 and losers of four of five, never threatened. Its coach called it the team’s worst effort of the year.

Why it matters

Depth in goal was a preseason question. A shutout from DiPietro, paired with an offense getting production from all four lines, makes Boston look like one of the East’s early-season heavyweights.

Sources: NHL.com · NESN. Reported and written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.

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Patriots’ Turnover Problem Comes Due in Chicago: Five Takeaways From the 30-24 Loss https://bostonmadeinc.com/patriots-bears-loss-takeaways-october-2026/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/?p=92489 football fieldDrake Maye threw for 321 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, but an end-zone interception and 16 missed tackles ended a three-game win streak.

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Drake Maye did enough to win in Chicago. The rest of the Patriots didn’t.

New England’s three-game winning streak ended Thursday night at Soldier Field in a 30-24 loss to the Bears. Maye went 24-of-31 for 321 yards with two touchdown passes and a rushing score. One throw decided the game, though: an interception in the end zone that took points off the board.

Five takeaways

  1. The turnover math is ugly. The pick left New England at minus-7 in turnover margin, second-worst in the league. Teams rarely sustain winning records while giving the ball away that often.
  2. Tackling fell apart. Pro Football Focus charged the defense with 16 missed tackles, the most since Super Bowl LX. Chicago piled up 405 yards, 116 on the ground.
  3. Coverage busts fed Luther Burden. The Bears rookie had 130 receiving yards by halftime, including a touchdown on a screen right after Maye’s interception.
  4. The playmakers showed up. Rhamondre Stevenson turned a short catch into a 48-yard touchdown before halftime, and Eli Raridon caught a 30-yard score that cut the gap to 27-21.
  5. Self-inflicted stalls. A fourth-down sack on the opening drive, false starts and a failed fourth-down try later on all left points on the field. Cairo Santos’s 58-yard field goal put it away.

The bigger picture

Caleb Williams threw for 308 yards and didn’t turn it over. That contrast is the game. Maye’s efficiency keeps New England in any matchup. The ball security around him, and a defense that wraps up, will decide whether this team wins in January.

Sources: Boston.com. Reported and written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.

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PHP 8.2 Loses Security Support on December 31. Here’s the 10-Week Plan for Your Website. https://bostonmadeinc.com/php-8-2-loses-security-support-on-december-31-heres-the-10-week-plan-for-your-website/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 14:00:00 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/php-8-2-loses-security-support-on-december-31-heres-the-10-week-plan-for-your-website/ tech serversMost small-business websites are built on WordPress, and WordPress runs on PHP. On December 31, 2026, PHP 8.2 reaches end of life: no more security fixes, ever. Any site still on it after that date is running software that will not be patched when the next vulnerability is found. Where each version stands 8.1 and […]

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Most small-business websites are built on WordPress, and WordPress runs on PHP. On December 31, 2026, PHP 8.2 reaches end of life: no more security fixes, ever. Any site still on it after that date is running software that will not be patched when the next vulnerability is found.

Where each version stands

  • 8.1 and older: support already ended Dec. 31, 2025. Upgrade now.
  • 8.2: support ends Dec. 31, 2026. Upgrade before year-end.
  • 8.3: supported through Dec. 31, 2027. A safe target.
  • 8.4: supported through Dec. 31, 2028. The best target if your plugins support it.

The 10-week plan

  1. This week: find out what you run. In WordPress, go to Tools → Site Health → Info → Server. Your host’s control panel shows it too.
  2. Weeks 2–3: back up everything. Files and database, stored off the server. Test that the backup actually restores.
  3. Weeks 3–4: update plugins and theme. Abandoned plugins, with no update in a year or more, are the most common reason an upgrade breaks a site. Replace them now.
  4. Weeks 5–6: test on staging. Most hosts let you clone a site. Switch the copy to 8.3 or 8.4 and click through forms, checkout and logins.
  5. Weeks 7–8: switch production. Pick a quiet day, change the version in your hosting panel, and watch for errors for 48 hours.
  6. Weeks 9–10: clean up. Remove unused plugins and themes, and turn on automatic minor updates.

Why it matters beyond security

Newer versions are also faster, which helps page speed and search rankings. And WordPress 7.0, released in May, raised its minimum requirement to 7.4. Very old setups are already being left behind on new features.

Not sure what your site runs on? Fenway Web will check your server version, plugins and backups for free and tell you exactly what needs to change. Request a site check →

Sources: HeroDevs support timeline · DreamHost on WordPress 7.0. Written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.

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Five Things We Changed on Twelve Sites This Week, and Why Your Site Should Copy Them https://bostonmadeinc.com/five-things-we-changed-on-twelve-sites-this-week-and-why-your-site-should-copy-them/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 13:55:41 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/five-things-we-changed-on-twelve-sites-this-week-and-why-your-site-should-copy-them/ boston brownstoneThis week we finished rolling a shared navigation layer across the twelve Boston Made sites. Different themes, different hosts, different ages. Here is what changed, and what we’d recommend for any multi-site business. 1. One shell, served from one place Each site loads a single script that renders the same network bar, footer and call-to-action […]

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This week we finished rolling a shared navigation layer across the twelve Boston Made sites. Different themes, different hosts, different ages. Here is what changed, and what we’d recommend for any multi-site business.

1. One shell, served from one place

Each site loads a single script that renders the same network bar, footer and call-to-action from one master file. Change the file once and every site updates. If you run more than one site, stop copying footers by hand.

2. Fixed elements get a stacking rule

Our dock was invisible on one site because the theme’s main wrapper had a z-index of 9999. Decide the order once: content, then header, then docks, then notifications, then dialogs. Write the numbers down.

3. Notifications never cover navigation

Cookie prompts and popups now measure the dock and sit above it. A banner that covers your primary navigation is a banner people close without reading.

4. Mobile menus are lists, not posters

We replaced full-bleed photo tiles with compact rows: a small thumbnail, a readable label, a chevron. Photos in a menu should help you recognize a destination, not compete with its name.

5. One search for the whole network

The flagship homepage now searches stories from all twelve sites and offers direct actions. If a visitor cannot find your other brands from your main site, they do not exist to that visitor.

The test we use

Open every site on a phone, as a stranger. Can you tell they belong together in two seconds? Can you get from any one to any other in one tap? If not, you have a portfolio, not a network.

Written by Fenway Web, the agency tribe of Boston Made.

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Pastrnak Ties Bergeron, Hagens Delivers: Bruins Outlast Sharks 6-4 in Wild Third Period https://bostonmadeinc.com/pastrnak-ties-bergeron-hagens-delivers-bruins-outlast-sharks-6-4-in-wild-third-period/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 13:44:58 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/pastrnak-ties-bergeron-hagens-delivers-bruins-outlast-sharks-6-4-in-wild-third-period/ hockey arenaFour third-period goals in a span of minutes turned a 3-3 tie into Boston's ninth win. David Pastrnak's 427th career goal ties Patrice Bergeron for third in franchise history.

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For two periods it was a coin flip. Then the Bruins scored four times in the third and walked out of TD Garden with a 6-4 win over the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

Boston is now 9-2-1 and has taken at least a point in eight straight games.

How the third period turned

  • Tied 3-3, David Pastrnak stepped out of the penalty box after a tripping call and scored within 10 seconds.
  • About 30 seconds later, 19-year-old rookie James Hagens poked one past Alex Nedeljkovic for a 4-3 lead, his fourth goal of the season.
  • Fraser Minten made it 5-3 roughly three minutes after that.
  • San Jose’s Will Smith answered 4-on-4 to make it a one-goal game and set up a frantic finish.
  • Will Borgen sealed it with under 30 seconds left in regulation.

The milestone

Pastrnak finished with two goals. The second was his seventh of the season and the 427th of his career, tying Patrice Bergeron for third-most in Bruins history. Only Johnny Bucyk (545) and Phil Esposito (459) are ahead of him.

Why it matters

The Bruins keep winning games in different ways. Wednesday it was a shutout and a four-line attack; Saturday it was a captain’s response and a teenager’s poise with the game on the line. Boston heads to Carolina on Tuesday looking for win No. 10.

Sources: Boston.com · 98.5 The Sports Hub. Reported and written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.

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Tatum’s 36 Lifts Celtics Past Knicks 107-103 in Garden Opener https://bostonmadeinc.com/celtics-beat-knicks-home-opener-2026/ Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:30:00 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/?p=92482 basketball gymJayson Tatum led Boston in points, rebounds and assists as the Celtics held off a fourth-quarter Knicks rally to even their record at 1-1.

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The banner-night nerves lasted about three quarters. Then Jayson Tatum took over.

Tatum finished with 36 points, nine rebounds and seven assists Friday night, leading Boston in all three categories, as the Celtics beat the New York Knicks 107-103 in their home opener at TD Garden. The win evens Boston at 1-1 after an opening-night loss in Detroit and drops New York to 0-2.

How it turned

Boston built a 10-point cushion in the second half, but the Knicks chipped it down to a single point late in the fourth quarter. Tatum answered with a run of difficult shots, including a three that pushed the margin back to six and quieted New York’s comeback.

Neemias Queta gave the Celtics a lift off the bench with 15 points and three blocked shots, protecting the rim during the stretch when New York was attacking downhill.

Why it matters

An 0-2 start would have put an early spotlight on a retooled rotation. Instead, Boston gets a weekend to reset before hosting the Chicago Bulls on Monday, with its best player looking every bit the closer the franchise has built around.

Sources: NBC Sports Boston · NBA.com game summary. Reported and written by the Ecosystem Intelligence Desk.

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Fenway Web Relaunches FenwayWeb.com With Published Pricing and Care Plans https://bostonmadeinc.com/fenway-web-relaunches-fenwayweb-com-with-published-pricing-and-care-plans/ Sat, 24 Oct 2026 21:29:24 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/fenway-web-relaunches-fenwayweb-com-with-published-pricing-and-care-plans/ Illustration for “Language Connections Wins Massachusetts Interpretation and Translation Services Contract”FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 24, 2026 — Fenway Web, the web design and development studio of Boston Made, Inc., today announced the relaunch of fenwayweb.com. The new site publishes the studio’s pricing in full for the first time and introduces monthly care plans so clients have a team behind their website long after […]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WORCESTER, Mass., Oct. 24, 2026 — Fenway Web, the web design and development studio of Boston Made, Inc., today announced the relaunch of fenwayweb.com. The new site publishes the studio’s pricing in full for the first time and introduces monthly care plans so clients have a team behind their website long after launch.

Three ways to start

Fenway Web now lists three build options. Starter ($1,500) covers up to five pages, mobile-first design, a contact form and local SEO setup. Business ($3,500) covers up to fifteen pages, copywriting, booking or lead forms, and analytics with training. Custom builds start at $7,500, with scope and price agreed in a written proposal before any work begins.

Care after launch

Optional care plans start at $49 a month and cover software updates, backups, security monitoring and post-launch edits, with a client portal for requests.

Who it builds for

The studio builds for small businesses, churches and local brands. Its portfolio spans New England, North Georgia and South Carolina’s Grand Strand, including sites for AX Home Pro, Sherry’s Homes, Victory Construction, The Soft Play Social, Coastal Community Church, Daniel Strickland Music and Howard Strickland.

Boston Made+ Business members save 10% on Fenway Web builds and care plans. Portfolio, pricing and the “Start a project” form are at fenwayweb.com.

About Fenway Web. Fenway Web is the web design, development and SEO studio of Boston Made, Inc. It designs, builds and looks after websites for small businesses, churches and local brands. fenwayweb.com

About Boston Made, Inc. Boston Made, Inc. is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Worcester, Massachusetts, behind The 12 Tribes of Boston Made, a family of brands spanning media, software, pets, parking, precious metals and web services. bostonmade.com/brands

Media contact: sales@bostonmade.com · Boston Made, Inc., 8 Grafton Street, Suite 210, Worcester, MA 01608

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Holiday Sales Forecast Tops $1 Trillion as AI Shoppers Reshape the Season https://bostonmadeinc.com/holiday-sales-forecast-tops-1-trillion-as-ai-shoppers-reshape-the-season/ Sat, 24 Oct 2026 21:28:31 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/holiday-sales-forecast-tops-1-trillion-as-ai-shoppers-reshape-the-season/ weather stormThe National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to top $1 trillion for the first time this year, and with Adobe forecasting a record $275.1 billion online and AI-driven shopping traffic more than doubling, the weeks before Black Friday on Nov. 27 will decide how much of that spending reaches small businesses’ own websites. The headline […]

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The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to top $1 trillion for the first time this year, and with Adobe forecasting a record $275.1 billion online and AI-driven shopping traffic more than doubling, the weeks before Black Friday on Nov. 27 will decide how much of that spending reaches small businesses’ own websites.

The headline forecasts

On Oct. 15, 2026, the NRF projected that November and December retail sales will grow 4.2 percent from last year, to $1.013 trillion. Its figures exclude auto dealers, gas stations and restaurants. Last season came in at $972 billion, a 3.1 percent gain, short of the trade group’s own initial forecast, according to Chain Store Age. NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said households “continue to navigate persistent inflation and uneven confidence about the economy,” Logistics Management reported. The group expects retailers to hire 325,000 to 375,000 seasonal workers, roughly in line with about 356,000 last year.

Other forecasters land in a similar range for total spending. Deloitte projects holiday retail sales from November through January will rise 4 percent to 4.8 percent, to about $1.7 trillion. The Mastercard Economic Institute expects retail sales excluding autos and gas to rise 5.5 percent between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, which coverage of its forecast described as the strongest growth in four years.

Online grows faster than the season

Every major forecast has e-commerce outpacing total retail. Adobe, which tracks transactions on retail websites, projects U.S. online holiday spending of $275.1 billion from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, up 6.7 percent. Deloitte’s range for holiday e-commerce is $316.1 billion to $318.9 billion, up 7.5 percent to 8.4 percent, using a longer season and a different method. Mastercard’s institute put online growth at 11 percent and in-store growth at 3.9 percent.

Adobe’s day-by-day projections show where the pressure lands. It expects Cyber Week, from Thanksgiving on Nov. 26 through Cyber Monday on Nov. 30, to bring in $47.5 billion, up 7.4 percent. Cyber Monday alone is forecast at $15.1 billion, which Adobe said “is expected to set a new milestone for U.S. e-commerce.” Black Friday is forecast at $12.9 billion and Thanksgiving at $6.9 billion, both growing faster than Cyber Monday. Adobe expects peak discounts of up to 30 percent during Cyber Week, with electronics and toys leading.

Inflation is doing part of the work

The trillion-dollar figure is not all new demand. NRF economists said nearly half of the 4.2 percent gain reflects higher prices, according to Chain Store Age, and the trade group expects core goods inflation to average 2.5 percent in 2026, up from 1.6 percent in 2025. NRF chief economist Mark Mathews pointed to higher diesel prices raising shipping costs and surging memory-chip prices weighing on electronics, Logistics Management reported. NRF also cited rising gas prices, higher interest rates and elevated consumer debt as reasons retailers are hiring cautiously.

For a small retailer, that combination means customers comparing prices more carefully while the retailer’s own costs for shipping and inventory climb.

AI and phones change where the click comes from

The fastest-growing source of shopping traffic is not a search engine or a social feed. Adobe expects referrals from generative AI tools to U.S. retail sites to rise 130 percent from last year, with jumps of 159 percent on Thanksgiving, 95 percent on Black Friday and 88 percent on Cyber Monday. Salesforce, in its July holiday predictions, forecast that AI chat agents would generate 20 percent of all holiday e-commerce traffic worldwide and that one in three e-commerce sites would have a shopping agent of their own live by Cyber Week.

Phones remain the default storefront. Adobe expects mobile devices to account for 57.4 percent of online holiday spending, up from 56.4 percent, and 82 percent of buy-now-pay-later spending, which it forecasts at $21.3 billion for November and December, up 6.6 percent.

Where marketing dollars are moving

Hard forecasts for holiday ad prices are scarce; none of the major retail forecasters published projections for search or social ad costs. The channel data that does exist points away from paid search. Adobe projects that social media’s share of online revenue will grow 17 percent and affiliates and partners, including influencers, 12 percent, compared with 4 percent for paid search. Salesforce predicted social commerce would grow nine times faster than traditional e-commerce and that retailers would spend an extra $3 billion globally on free shipping.

“Getting eyes on your brand is no longer the same as closing the sale,” Salesforce consumer insights director Caila Schwartz wrote in the company’s predictions.

Fenway’s Take

The forecasts describe a season that is bigger on paper, partly inflated by prices, and increasingly routed through intermediaries: AI assistants, marketplaces and social platforms. For a local shop, bakery or service business, the risk is not that holiday shoppers stay home. It is that the shoppers who would have found the business directly now arrive through a channel that summarizes, compares and sometimes completes the purchase elsewhere.

The counterweight is a website that answers the questions an AI assistant or a hurried phone shopper asks, in plain text, on fast pages: what is in stock, what it costs, when it ships or when the store is open, and how to pay. Adobe’s growth in buy-now-pay-later spending and mobile share suggests that payment options and mobile checkout speed are not cosmetic. They are where holiday orders are won or abandoned.

Timing matters as much as content. Changes made the week of Thanksgiving have little time to be crawled, tested or fixed. The practical window for a small business to prepare its site is the next three weeks.

What it means for you

  • Publish holiday hours, shipping cutoff dates and return policies as plain text on your site and in your Google Business Profile by mid-November, so AI tools and search can find them.
  • Test checkout on a phone over a cellular connection, including any buy-now-pay-later option, and remove steps that require creating an account.
  • Build one page per gift category or offer rather than a single long sale page, so each can be found and cited on its own.
  • Plan for higher shipping costs in pricing and free-shipping thresholds rather than absorbing them during Cyber Week.
  • Freeze major site changes by about Nov. 20 so there is time to fix problems before Thanksgiving traffic arrives.

Test yourself

1. What total does the NRF forecast for November and December 2026 retail sales?

Answer: $1.013 trillion, up 4.2 percent from last year, which would be the first season above $1 trillion.

2. Which day does Adobe expect to be the biggest online shopping day of the season?

Answer: Cyber Monday, Nov. 30, at a forecast $15.1 billion.

3. How much does Adobe expect traffic from generative AI tools to U.S. retail sites to grow?

Answer: About 130 percent year over year, with the biggest jump on Thanksgiving.

4. Roughly how much of NRF’s forecast growth comes from inflation?

Answer: Nearly half, according to NRF economists, with core goods inflation expected to average 2.5 percent this year.

Discussion

  1. If AI assistants send a growing share of shoppers to retail sites, should small businesses optimize for those assistants the way they once optimized for search engines?
  2. Is a trillion-dollar holiday season good news for local retailers if nearly half the growth comes from higher prices?
  3. Should small retailers match big-box free-shipping offers this year, or compete on pickup, service and speed instead?

From the network

The post Holiday Sales Forecast Tops $1 Trillion as AI Shoppers Reshape the Season appeared first on Fenway Web.

The post Holiday Sales Forecast Tops $1 Trillion as AI Shoppers Reshape the Season appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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Google Moves Links Higher in AI Answers and Tests a Slot for Official Sites https://bostonmadeinc.com/google-moves-links-higher-in-ai-answers-and-tests-a-slot-for-official-sites/ Sat, 24 Oct 2026 21:26:44 +0000 https://bostonmadeinc.com/google-moves-links-higher-in-ai-answers-and-tests-a-slot-for-official-sites/ tech serversGoogle said on Oct. 15, 2026, that it is putting more links higher inside AI Mode and AI Overviews and testing a dedicated slot for official websites at the top of some AI answers, the clearest signal yet of which small-business pages its AI search will send people to. What Google changed on Oct. 15 […]

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Google said on Oct. 15, 2026, that it is putting more links higher inside AI Mode and AI Overviews and testing a dedicated slot for official websites at the top of some AI answers, the clearest signal yet of which small-business pages its AI search will send people to.

What Google changed on Oct. 15

The announcement came in a post on Google’s Keyword blog titled “More ways to connect with the web from Search,” written by Hema Budaraju, a vice president of product management. It described five changes to how links appear in Google’s AI-generated answers, and they are not all at the same stage.

  • Inline links, launching. Google said it has made “continued and substantial increases” in links embedded directly in AI answer text and is now placing them higher in responses more often. It did not quantify either change.
  • Official-site section, testing. For some task-based searches, Google will test a section at the top of the answer that surfaces one or two official pages, with a short explanation of why each one is useful.
  • News carousels, rolling out. Carousels of timely articles that highlight a user’s Preferred Sources are expanding to more countries and languages. Google said use of Preferred Sources has grown more than sevenfold since the start of 2026.
  • Thumbnails on related links. Links shown at the end of some AI responses now carry image thumbnails and a more clickable design.
  • Creator names, testing. Creator and publisher names on video results in AI Mode may link to a Google Search profile.

Google gave no rollout dates, device details or country lists for the inline-link changes, the official-site test or the thumbnails, according to Search Engine Journal and The Search Spot. Google executive Nick Fox summarized the changes on X the same day and said more than 400 publications are now part of Google’s News AI pilot licensing program.

The official-site slot is the change to watch

For most local businesses, the news carousels are irrelevant and the creator test is narrow. The official-site section is different. Google described it as an extension of how it already features a site when someone searches for that business by name: for a task with only one or two authoritative destinations, the AI answer would point straight to them.

Search Engine Journal’s reading of the announcement is that clear, authoritative pages built around a specific task are the most likely to be surfaced. In practice, for a dental office that might be the page where patients book a cleaning; for a church, the page with service times and directions; for a contractor, the request-a-quote page. Google has not explained how it chooses the official page, and it has not said when the test will expand.

That uncertainty cuts both ways. A business whose booking, pricing or hours information lives in a PDF, an image or a third-party widget gives Google little to identify as the official answer. A business with one plainly written page per task gives it an obvious choice.

What Search Console will and will not show

Site owners hoping to measure the change should lower their expectations. Search Console assigns every link inside an AI Overview the overview’s single position, so a link that moves higher inside the answer will not register as a ranking improvement, Search Engine Journal noted. Google also did not commit to adding click data to its AI performance reporting. A Google representative told Search Engine Roundtable the company will “introduce additional metrics over time,” without a date.

For small businesses, that means the useful measurements will come from their own analytics: whether visits arriving from Google land on booking, quote and contact pages, and whether those visits convert.

Ads are coming to AI Mode, at least in a test

Separately, Google confirmed to Search Engine Land on Oct. 16 that it is testing ads in AI Mode for people who use Personal Intelligence, the opt-in feature that lets AI Mode draw on connected apps such as Gmail and Google Photos, according to The Keyword and other trade coverage. Google’s help documentation says those ads will not be based “directly on your Gmail inbox or your Google Photos library,” but that summaries and inferences drawn from connected apps may be used to show ads. Sensitive categories such as health, religion and sexual orientation are excluded.

Google has not announced advertiser controls, targeting options, reporting or a wider rollout. For now, the test is a signal of direction rather than a new line item in a small-business ad budget.

Meanwhile, two housekeeping items

October has also been unsettled in traditional search. Google’s September 2026 spam update began Sept. 24 and finished Oct. 8, according to Google’s Search Status Dashboard and Search Engine Roundtable. Search Engine Roundtable has since reported unconfirmed ranking volatility around Oct. 16 and again on Oct. 20 and 21, with forum reports of sharp swings in Search and Discover traffic. Google has confirmed no update for those dates.

On the WordPress side, version 7.1.3 and the 7.0.7 branch release shipped on Oct. 6. The 7.0.7 release notes list seven security fixes, including a stored cross-site scripting flaw on the Comments administration screen, a second-order SQL injection in the export tool, and a bug that disclosed comments on private and unpublished posts to unauthenticated visitors. WordPress.org says only the latest release in the 7.1 series is actively maintained, though fixes were backported to older branches.

Fenway’s Take

Every Google AI change this year has pointed in the same direction: the AI answer increasingly decides which single page deserves the click, and it rewards pages that make that decision easy. The official-site test makes the logic explicit. A small-business website now needs to be legible not only to a person skimming on a phone but to a system deciding, in a fraction of a second, which page is the authoritative place to complete a task.

That is less about clever optimization than about structure. One page per service or task, written in plain language, with the answer near the top, consistent business details across the site and its Google Business Profile, and markup that identifies the business, its location and its hours. On many small-business sites the information exists somewhere; the problem is that it is scattered across a homepage slider, a PDF menu and a contact form, none of which reads as the official answer to anything.

The measurement gap matters too. Because Search Console will not show position changes inside AI answers, owners should judge these changes by what happens on their task pages, not by rank trackers. And because ranking volatility has been unusually high this month, it is a poor time to make sweeping changes in reaction to a single week of traffic data.

What it means for you

  • List the three to five tasks customers come to your site to complete, such as booking, getting a quote or finding service times, and make sure each has one clear page that states the answer in text near the top.
  • Move critical information out of PDFs, images and embedded widgets and into crawlable page text.
  • Confirm your site is eligible for Google’s generative AI features in Search Console, which Search Engine Journal notes is a prerequisite for Preferred Source status in AI Mode and AI Overviews.
  • Update WordPress core to the latest 7.1 release if your host has not already done it, and check that comment moderation and export tools are restricted to trusted accounts.
  • Measure AI search traffic by conversions on task pages in your own analytics, and avoid redesign decisions based on this month’s ranking swings.

Test yourself

1. Which of Google’s Oct. 15 changes is still a test: inline links or the official-site section?

Answer: The official-site section; Google said it is launching more and higher inline links, but only testing the dedicated slot for official pages.

2. Why won’t a link moving higher inside an AI Overview show up as a ranking gain in Search Console?

Answer: Search Console assigns every link in an AI Overview the overview’s single position, regardless of where the link sits inside it.

3. How much has use of Google’s Preferred Sources feature grown in 2026, according to Google?

Answer: More than sevenfold since the start of the year, though Google gave no baseline figure.

4. How many security fixes did WordPress 7.0.7 include?

Answer: Seven, released Oct. 6, 2026, alongside WordPress 7.1.3.

Discussion

  1. If Google’s AI answers increasingly send people to a single official page, does that help small local businesses compete with national directories, or hurt them?
  2. Should Google be required to report clicks from AI answers in Search Console before expanding features that change where those clicks go?
  3. Would you be comfortable seeing ads in AI Mode shaped by inferences from your connected apps, even if they are not based directly on your inbox?

From the network

The post Google Moves Links Higher in AI Answers and Tests a Slot for Official Sites appeared first on Fenway Web.

The post Google Moves Links Higher in AI Answers and Tests a Slot for Official Sites appeared first on Boston Made, Inc. | Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

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