Here’s a sign that customer data is increasingly important: open source database vendor Couchbase has introduced a “engagement database” that is says is new class of system, distinct from transactional and analytical databases. It’s optimized for real time interactions at scale, with key features including in-memory data, full text search, and mobile deployment. They’ve written a helpful white paper explaining the details.

B2B profiling vendor MarianaIQ was built from the start on using artificial intelligence to identify buyer personas. They’ve just announced a neural network-based model to help companies find new target accounts. Also new: a targeting option for Google AdWords, which joins existing Twitter and Facebook ad capabilities.

News organizations have long sought ways to make platforms like Meta and Google pay for the content they reproduce. Now Google says the value of news content is overrated, especially when it comes to ad revenue. A study conducted by Google in eight European countries found no change to Search ad revenue and less than 1% drop in usage when the content from 13,000 EU publishers was removed.