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Google is rolling out a new small-business home page inside the Gemini app, announced October 20, 2026. It puts one connection front and center: your Google Business Profile, the listing people see when they search for your business on Google Search or Maps. Once you connect it, Gemini can change your regular and holiday hours, update your contact info and booking or ordering links, manage food menus and photos, draft or delete review replies, create and publish profile posts and offers, and pull your performance numbers and the search words people used to find you.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. A connected app is a permission you give Gemini to reach into another one of your accounts and work there for you. The new business page also lets you save your brand style for marketing images, turn spreadsheets and receipts into charts, and connect Google Ads, Google Workspace, Canva, Shopify, Xero, and more. Google first announced the Business Profile connection in June; the October news brings it into the new business home page with a global rollout. Google did not list a price or plan.

Who qualifies, per Google's help page: you manage only one verified Business Profile, you're 18 or older, you sign in to the Gemini website (gemini.google.com) with the personal Google account tied to your listing (work and school accounts aren't supported yet), and Gemini's Keep Activity setting is on.

Takeaway: check that you qualify before you spend time on it. Look at your own listing on your phone first so you know what right looks like. Start with questions, not changes: search words and review themes. Make holiday hours your first real edit, then confirm it on Maps. Set a house rule that Gemini drafts and a person posts, and every price gets checked by a human. You can disconnect Business Profile anytime in Gemini's Connected Apps settings.

Sources: Google, "New Gemini tools for small business owners" — https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-app/new-tools-small-business-owners/ · Google Business Profile Help, "Manage your Business Profile on Google with the Gemini web app" — https://support.google.com/business/answer/17142585 · Gemini Apps Help, "Use & manage Connected Apps in Gemini" — https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13695044 · Search Engine Watch — https://searchenginewatch.com/gemini-small-business-hub-remembers-brand-style/

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Anthropic opened a waitlist for Claude Duet, a separate app where Claude works as a proactive agent for professionals and small business owners. It sends a morning brief on your connected apps, checks them every few hours, and can draft unpaid-invoice reminders, prepare payroll, send agreements for signature, and buy supplies. Before it sends a message, makes a payment, signs a document, or deletes anything, it shows you exactly what it's about to do and waits for your approval.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. An agent is an AI that takes steps, not just writes words. Proactive means it comes to you first instead of waiting for a question. Anthropic says Duet runs on its own virtual machine with its own browser, so your laptop doesn't have to stay on, and it carries over your memory, skills, and connected apps from your regular Claude account. Some things are off-limits even with your approval, like trading securities or moving money between accounts. Anthropic says Duet never directly sees your passwords or sign-in tokens, and a new check is built to refuse sharing credit card numbers and government ID. Purchases go through Link, Stripe's digital wallet, with your approval and a virtual card.

Who can get it: it's a research preview by waitlist, starting with Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US, and Anthropic says it's included in those plans during the preview. It shares your plan's usage limits with the rest of Claude, and its background checks count against them. Anthropic also says this early version might misread a thread or misjudge what's urgent.

Takeaway: a fifteen-minute prep before you join the waitlist. Check your plan (free or outside the US means not yet). Look at which apps are already connected to your Claude account and disconnect anything you wouldn't hand a new hire on day one, because Duet inherits them. Start with one boring job, like the morning brief and drafted invoice reminders, not payroll. And write down your approval rule: you approve every payment and every customer message yourself, and you read it before you tap yes.

Sources: Anthropic, "Introducing Claude Duet" — https://claude.com/resources/articles/claude-duet · Stripe newsroom, "Stripe and Anthropic help entrepreneurs run their business inside Claude Duet" — https://stripe.com/newsroom/news/anthropic-and-stripe · CNBC on Claude Duet — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/21/anthropic-preview-of-claude-duet-personal-ai-agent-take-on-muse-dots.html

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Meta paused the share-link feature in Muse, its AI assistant, after security researchers found more than 6,800 shared Muse chats they could locate through public internet records, including a small-business owner's loan application and a workplace's full-year staff vacation calendar.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. A share link is a web address an AI tool makes for one conversation so you can send it to someone else; whoever has the address can open it, with no login. Security firm Claroc found that Muse put each conversation's title right in the web address, and once someone opened a link, that address showed up in public DNS lookup records that companies index and sell searches of. One search returned more than 6,800 Muse share addresses, readable by title. Most of the few hundred the researchers opened were harmless, but a minority held a loan application, a CEO's revenue review, a bank fraud alert with part of an account number, and a staff vacation calendar. Claroc says it has no evidence anyone misused them.

What Meta said: people can share specific Muse artifacts, which creates a page anyone with the link can access, and Meta has paused the feature while it reviews the report and considers changes to how those links can be discovered. Claroc says it reported the issue to Meta's bug bounty program on October 8; Meta paused sharing on October 20, and none of 40 old links rechecked that day still opened. The titles remain in DNS history.

Why it matters if you don't use Muse: every AI tool's share link works for whoever ends up holding it. ChatGPT links from personal accounts open for anyone with the link and don't expire; links made inside a ChatGPT Business workspace open only for members of that workspace, and Claude Team and Enterprise chats can only be shared inside the organization. Locking a ChatGPT chat doesn't delete a link you already shared.

Takeaway: run a fifteen-minute share-link sweep. In ChatGPT, go to Settings, Data controls, and click Manage next to Shared links; delete what you don't need, or choose Delete all shared links. In Claude (Free, Pro, Max), go to Settings, Privacy, and click Manage next to Shared chats, then Unshare. Set one rule: no share links for money, staff, or customers. Read a chat's title before you share it. Ask each person for one number, how many links they found. Treat Muse sharing as off until Meta explains what changed.

Sources: Ars Technica, "Meta Muse exposes users' personal and business secrets when they share conversations" — https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/10/meta-muse-exposes-users-personal-and-business-secrets-when-they-share-conversations/ · The Verge, "Meta pauses Muse sharing after researchers find AI chats on the web" — https://www.theverge.com/tech/1014627/meta-muse-ai-sharing-ai-chats · Claroc research, "GhostShares" — https://blog.claroc.io/ghostshares-muse-passive-dns/ · OpenAI Help Center, "Sharing conversations and scheduled tasks in ChatGPT" — https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7925741-sharing-conversations-and-scheduled-tasks-in-chatgpt · Claude Help Center, "Share and unshare chats" — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/10593882-share-and-unshare-chats

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Yelp announced Smart Lead Reply, an AI agent that answers Request a Quote messages the moment they arrive, asks your questions, sorts real jobs from time wasters, and sends your scheduling link. Yelp says it rolls out in November for $30 a month to service businesses in eligible categories.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. A quote request on Yelp is a message from a customer describing a job. Qualifying a lead means sorting the real jobs from the time wasters before anybody drives out: right service area, a job you actually do, a customer who's ready. Yelp says Smart Lead Reply draws on what's already in your Yelp for Business account and Yelp page, and you can customize it with a scheduling link, services offered, pricing or promos, the questions to ask, and how conversations should be handled. Every conversation is logged in your Yelp inbox, and you get a notification to review the qualified lead and pick up where the agent left off.

What else to know: Yelp names movers, roofers, plumbers, home cleaners, contractors, and electricians among eligible categories, plus additional service businesses, but didn't publish a full list. The same release adds direct booking from Yelp for ServiceTitan and Housecall Pro users and lead hand-offs into Jobber and Workiz. Yelp also says about 10% of Request a Quote submissions in Q2 came through Yelp Assistant, its AI chatbot for consumers, so AI is already on the customer's side of the conversation. The risks are ordinary ones: stale page info gets repeated, any price you type becomes a promise, and a calendar link with fake openings books jobs you can't keep.

Takeaway: before it shows up, do a ten-minute Yelp checkup. Read your Yelp page like a stranger would and fix hours, services, service area, and description, because that page becomes the AI's script. Write three things on paper: the questions you always ask, the jobs you don't take, and the one price sentence you're comfortable having an AI say (or none at all, and let it just book the visit). Then check your Yelp messages: count last month's quote requests and how many got an answer within an hour. If every lead already gets a fast reply, skip it. If leads sat overnight, that's your case for the $30.

Sources: Yelp Fall 2026 Product Release (Business Wire) — https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261020237779/en/Yelp-Announces-More-Personalized-Yelp-Assistant-Agent-that-Checks-Restaurant-Wait-Times-and-AI-Tools-for-Service-Professionals · Yelp Official Blog, "Do more on Yelp" — https://blog.yelp.com/news/fall-product-release-2026/ · TechCrunch on Yelp's AI phone agent and Smart Lead Reply — https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/20/yelp-can-now-call-on-your-behalf-to-check-wait-times-at-a-restaurant/ · Yelp for Business, what's new (Calendly scheduling) — https://business.yelp.com/products/new-yelp-for-business-products-features/

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If your business has a Facebook Page, runs ads, or uses Meta Business Suite, Meta's updated Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms take effect October 30, 2026. They say you authorize Meta, or anyone acting for it, to use automated crawlers on websites associated with your products or services, keep copies, and periodically pull updates.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. A crawler is a program that visits websites on its own and copies what's on the pages. The first version of the new terms said Meta could use that content to "train" its products, the word that matters for AI. After a Nieman Lab report on October 15 and pushback from publishers and legal experts, Meta said the crawling terms only apply to its ads and business products, and the word "train" came out of the US English version. Lawyers quoted by Nieman Lab say "develop" is still broad, the terms don't rule training out, and reports differ on exactly what text is posted, so the wording is still moving.

What else to know: Meta says the goal is pulling accurate product information for ads and recommendations. The current Self-Serve Ad Terms (effective August 2025) already let Meta crawl advertisers' domains for uses including research and training. There is no opt-out button: continuing to use Meta for business after notice counts as agreeing. Meta says site owners can use robots.txt to signal preferences, but the terms don't promise to honor it, and Meta's crawler docs say two of its crawlers may skip it in some cases. No prices are involved.

Takeaway: before October 30, spend fifteen minutes looking at your own website like a stranger would. Search Google for site:yourdomain.com PDF and take down or put behind a real login anything you wouldn't want copied, like old price sheets, handbooks, or customer lists. Then ask your web person one question: are we blocking Meta-ExternalAgent in robots.txt? Link previews come from a different crawler (FacebookExternalHit), so don't block every Meta crawler. And don't delete your Facebook Page in a panic.

Sources: TechCrunch, "Meta removes language that raised scraping and AI training concerns" — https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/17/meta-removes-language-that-raised-scraping-and-ai-training-concerns/ · Quartz on the revision (citing Nieman Lab and The Verge) — https://qz.com/meta-business-terms-ai-scraping-news-publishers-101926 · On The Wire comparison of archived terms — https://onthewire.ai/article/meta-drops-train-from-the-us-text-of-its-30-october-business-terms-but-an-archiv · Meta web crawler documentation — https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/

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Microsoft added a new Copilot setting called Advanced package uploads. It decides who in your business can add Copilot agents that take actions or connect to other software. Microsoft's Message Center notice (MC1472007) says that starting October 25, 2026, these uploads stay allowed for everyone unless an admin picks "No users" or "Specific users or groups."

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. An agent is a version of Copilot someone set up for one job, like answering questions about your price list or drafting a weekly report. A basic agent only has instructions: it reads what Copilot can already see and answers or drafts. An advanced agent has actions, or it connects to an MCP server, a common plug standard that lets AI tools reach other software like a scheduling system or customer list. That means it can create records, send requests, and change things, using the access of whoever built it.

What Microsoft says: the setting is in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Copilot settings. The choices are all users, no users, or specific users or groups. Basic agent uploads stay allowed no matter what you pick. The setting only covers agents your own people upload, not agents built by Microsoft or other companies. It applies to advanced agents uploaded after the control appears, so it doesn't remove anything already there, but admins can see uploaded and shared packages and what's inside each one. The rollout started September 25 and is expected to finish by the end of October, so if you don't see it yet, check again soon. There are no prices involved.

Takeaway: have whoever is the admin on your Microsoft 365 account look at the Advanced package uploads setting before October 25. For most small businesses, pick specific users or groups and name the one or two people you trust to build agents that touch your other software. If nobody builds agents, pick no users. If an outside IT company manages your account, ask them one question: what is our Advanced package uploads setting, and who can upload agents with actions?

Sources: Microsoft 365 Message Center MC1472007, "Manage who can upload advanced agents and plugins" (archived) — https://mc.merill.net/message/MC1472007 · Modern Workspace Pro copy of the official notice — https://mwpro.co.uk/blog/2026/09/15/mc1472007-microsoft-365-copilot-adds-admin-control-to-manage-advanced-agent-and-plugin-uploads/

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OpenAI started rolling out ChatGPT Slides. You can turn notes, files, or an existing conversation into an editable slide deck, work on it with your team in ChatGPT Space, and export it to PowerPoint, PDF, or Google Slides. It showed up in OpenAI's ChatGPT release notes on October 16, 2026.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. Space is a shared work area inside ChatGPT where your documents, files, and decks sit together. Work is the part of ChatGPT that does a longer job and hands you a finished file. To make a deck, you ask Work for a presentation, describe the topic and audience, and attach your notes. You can hand it one of your own old decks as an example so the new one matches your style and layout. To fix a slide, select the element, choose Request edits, and say what to change. Teammates with edit access can work on the same deck at the same time and leave shared comments. Comment-only access isn't available at launch, so anyone you share with can edit.

Who gets it: OpenAI says Slides is rolling out to eligible Pro, Business, and Enterprise accounts with Space access, on the web and in the desktop app. Plus and Free aren't named. If you're on Plus or Free, the ChatGPT for PowerPoint add-in (generally available on every plan since July 2026) already builds and revises slides inside PowerPoint. On Windows 10, and some Windows 11 computers, the desktop app falls back to plain PowerPoint files, so use ChatGPT on the web. The announcement has no new prices, so we don't quote any.

Takeaway: check your plan before you upgrade anything. Pick one deck you already build by hand, like a safety meeting or a monthly review. Feed it your notes and your best old deck as the example. Export it to PowerPoint and check every name, date, and number before anyone sees it. OpenAI's own help page says to review the text, figures, and layout before you share or present.

Sources: OpenAI Help Center — ChatGPT release notes, "Create and collaborate on slides in ChatGPT" — https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes · OpenAI Help Center — "Creating and collaborating on slides in ChatGPT" — https://help.openai.com/en/articles/20001605-creating-and-collaborating-on-slides-in-chatgpt

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OpenAI upgraded the ChatGPT extension for Chrome. ChatGPT can now look across the tabs you have open to answer a question, and in ChatGPT Work it can control your Chrome tabs to fill out forms, send messages, and download files, on sites where you're already signed in. OpenAI announced it on October 15, 2026, through its official ChatGPT account.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. An extension is a small add-on you install into your browser that lets another company's software see and work with your pages. In regular Chat, ChatGPT reads your tabs when you tag Chrome. Nothing gets clicked. In Work, it can act. OpenAI also upgraded the side panel, so the full ChatGPT and your conversation history sit beside the page you're on. It works in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Vivaldi (no side panel in Opera).

The settings that matter: by default ChatGPT asks before it uses each new website. You can allow once, allow for this site, allow for all sites, or decline. OpenAI labels "Allow for all sites" as elevated risk. You'll find your allowlist and blocklist in the ChatGPT desktop app under Settings, then Computer Use, then Manage next to Chrome. It asks every time before it uses your browsing history. OpenAI says it doesn't keep a separate complete record of your browser actions. It stores what becomes part of the chat. OpenAI says the extension is available on every ChatGPT plan, and what you can do depends on your plan, the rollout, and your workspace settings. The announcement has no prices, so we don't quote any.

Takeaway: check Chrome's Manage Extensions page on your office computers to see if ChatGPT is already installed. Review the allowed sites, put your bank and payroll sites on the blocklist, and never pick "Allow for all sites." Start with a read-only test, like comparing three supplier tabs in a table with links. When you move on to forms, tell it to stop before submitting.

Sources: ChatGPT Learn — "Browser extension" — https://learn.chatgpt.com/docs/chrome-extension · ChatGPT Training — "Using your computer and browser" — https://learn.chatgpt.com/training/walkthroughs/computer-and-browser · Engadget — "ChatGPT can now look at your Chrome tabs to do tasks for you" (quotes @ChatGPT, Oct 15, 2026) — https://www.engadget.com/2288580/open-ai-updates-chatgpt-extension-for-chrome/ · The Verge — "ChatGPT can peek at your Chrome tabs now" — https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1012510/openai-chatgpt-google-chrome-tabs

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Google is rolling out "next steps" in Google Meet, powered by Gemini and Workspace Studio. After a meeting, Meet can draft your follow-up email in Gmail and add action items to Google Tasks. Google announced it on the Workspace Updates blog on October 12, 2026; the extended rollout started October 5 and may take longer than 15 days to reach everyone.

Mike and Frank explain it in plain English. A next step is a chore Meet does for you after the call ends. You turn one on with one tap under "Routines for this meeting" on the post-meeting screen. It drafts; it doesn't send. You still read the email and hit send. For draft emails, Google Chat notifies you when it's done.

The fine print: you need a work or school account, smart features on, Take notes for me and Ask Gemini on during the meeting, a Google Calendar event, and a computer. For the follow-up email, you must be the host, the meeting can't be part of a repeating series, and at least one participant must be from outside your organization. Turn a next step on for a repeating meeting and it stays on for every future meeting in that series.

Who gets it: Google Workspace Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and the Google AI Pro for Education add-on. Business Starter and personal accounts are not listed. It's ON by default; admins can turn it off for the domain, an organizational unit, or a group in Workspace Studio admin settings or the Take notes for me setting. To turn one off yourself: studio.workspace.google.com, then Flows, find the one marked "system," then Manage flow, then Turn off. No plan prices are in the announcement.

Takeaway: on Business Standard or higher, host your next one-time customer or vendor call from a Calendar invite, turn on Take notes for me and Ask Gemini, then turn on the follow-up email under "Routines for this meeting" when you hang up. Read the draft before it goes out.

Sources: Google Workspace Updates — "Find your routine next steps on the post-meeting screen in Google Meet" — https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/10/find-your-routine-next-steps-on-post-meeting-screen-in-Google-Meet.html · Google Meet Help — "Complete routine tasks with post-meeting next steps" — https://support.google.com/meet/answer/18481437

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On October 13, 2026, Google released Gemini 4 Argon, the first model in its Gemini 4 family. It is available globally to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search, to Google AI Ultra subscribers in Google Antigravity, to developers on the Gemini API paid tier in AI Studio, and to enterprises through Gemini for business, the API, and Antigravity.

Mike and Frank explain the news in plain English. Gemini 4 is Google's new model generation; Argon is its first and most capable model, built for deep, multi-step work like coding, finance, legal, cybersecurity, and science. Google says it follows style instructions better, hedges less, skips clichés, and is trained to pause for human confirmation before irreversible steps. The free Gemini app is not on Google's consumer list — Pro and Ultra are.

What to do: check your plan → open the Gemini app or AI Mode in Search → look for Gemini 4 Argon in the model picker (rolling out globally) → test it on one real deep job, like turning a messy project folder into a client proposal. API builders: the introductory price is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cached input 95% off. After the introductory period ends November 30, 2026, it becomes $4 and $20. The Gemini API offers a 1M unified input-output token limit and a new continuation protocol. No subscription prices are listed in the announcement.

Takeaway: if you pay for Pro or Ultra, open the picker and test Argon on one real job this week. If you build on the API, mark November 30 on the calendar before the rate doubles.

Source: Google — "Gemini 4 Argon: Built to solve your hardest problems" — https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-argon/

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