Shopify starts taxing return shipping and Google runs a two-week spam sweep: audit both this week

Shopify begins auto-taxing US return shipping fees on October 23

Shopify has confirmed that starting October 23, 2026, merchants using Shopify Tax or Tax Platform in the United States will have return shipping fees taxed automatically, the same way outbound shipping is taxed. Existing state-level shipping tax settings still apply, so states where you have shipping set to untaxed remain untaxed on returns as well. Shopify records the final tax at the point the return is processed and rolls it into your tax reports.

This hits US Shopify merchants who currently run any manual workaround for tax on returns, including spreadsheet reconciliation, imported tax adjustments, or a flat return shipping fee that was set assuming no tax would be added. After October 23, those workarounds will double-count or under-price the fee against the buyer.

The move this week, under an hour: open Settings, Shipping and delivery, and pull the current return shipping fee amounts you charge. Confirm each one is priced the way you want it to land after tax is added on top, and disable any manual return-tax journal entries or app rules that will otherwise duplicate the collection after the 23rd. If you use the community thread or Help Center article to verify state-by-state behavior, do that before pushing changes.

Shopify Changelog: Tax on return shipping feesShopify Help Center: Shipping taxShopify community thread on the October 23 update

Google's September 2026 spam update is a two-week rollout

Google's Search Status Dashboard confirms the September 2026 spam update began at 09:15 PDT on September 24 and is rolling out worldwide across all languages. Google has told the industry the rollout may take up to two weeks, which is a longer window than the March, June, or August spam updates earlier this year, each of which was described as running for a few days.

This lands on any site that has been publishing at scale, especially operators running content programs where content is thin or scaled with AI. Even sites not targeted directly can see ranking shuffles during the rollout window as competitors move.

The move this week, under an hour: open Search Console, filter Performance by date to compare September 17 through 23 against September 24 onward, and export the pages with the largest click and impression deltas. Do not react to day-one movement, but flag the losers for a manual review of thin, templated, or unattributed content once the rollout completes.

Google Search Status Dashboard incidentSearch Engine Journal coverage of the September 2026 spam updateSearch Engine Land on the September 2026 spam update

A new Google AI-spam detector named SAFE, with a caveat

Google has published a research paper describing a system called Scaled Abuse Forensics Examiner, or SAFE, designed to identify AI-generated content that violates the spirit of platform policy rather than a specific rule. It uses a few-shot-trained LLM plus multimodal semantic embeddings and is described as active in the YouTube and video-abuse context. It is the second AI-spam system Google has surfaced in 2026, after S-CTS.

The caveat matters: deployment to web Search specifically has not been confirmed by Google. Third-party coverage suggests SAFE may be part of the September spam update, but the source paper originated in a video context. Treat as likely active on video networks and possibly influential on Search, not as confirmed Search enforcement.

This hits agencies and in-house content teams running LLM-assisted publishing pipelines, especially those publishing scaled content. The move under an hour: pull your top ten pages by traffic that were AI-drafted, and add at least one first-hand signal to each: a named author, an original quote, a data point you collected, or a screenshot you produced. Prioritize the thinnest ones. Do this before waiting to see what the rollout does.

Search Engine Journal: Google has deployed SAFE

Search Console now shows image-search traffic

Google began rolling out a new Web: multimodal search type filter in Search Console on September 24. It reports pages that received clicks and impressions from image-based searches, including Google Lens, Circle to Search on Android, uploaded images, and Chrome's Search this image action. It also covers impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode under Generative AI. Query data is not available for this search type, and Google says this traffic was not previously counted, so text-based numbers should not drop.

This hits ecommerce, media, and product-heavy sites that have been effectively blind to visual search demand. Pages with poor alt text or unoptimized images have been leaking impressions that no one could see.

The move this week, under an hour: in Search Console Performance, switch the Search type filter to Web: multimodal, sort by impressions, and export the top twenty pages. For the top five, open the page and rewrite alt text on the hero and product images to describe the object with the attributes a Lens user would photograph. API access to this data is not yet confirmed, so this needs to be a manual pull for now.

Google Search Central Blog: Web multimodal in Search ConsoleSearch Engine Journal on the multimodal filter

TDS Telecom shuts down free email on October 31

TDS Telecom is exiting consumer mailbox hosting. Subscribers who want to keep their existing address must sign up for a paid Everymail plan by October 31, 2026. Accounts not migrated by that date will be closed and stored mail permanently deleted. Everymail is powered by Open-Xchange. Continued mail after the cutoff to un-migrated addresses will hard-bounce.

This hits email marketers and lifecycle operators who have long-tenured lists that predate Gmail's dominance, particularly regional brands and consumer subscriptions with older customer files. If more than a small share of your list is on tds.net or related TDS domains, your bounce rate is about to move.

The move this week, under an hour: segment your list by recipient domain and pull the count on tds.net plus other TDS-branded domains. For any of those addresses that are unengaged, suppress or move to a re-permission flow now. After November 1, watch delivery logs for 5xx codes from these domains and suppress on the first hard bounce rather than retrying.

SpamResource: TDS Telecom offloading email serviceTDS Telecom official notice

Google Demand Gen adds one-click Shorts, one-click Gmail, and Maps affiliate pins

Google has rolled out a September Demand Gen drop with three concrete features. One-click image ads now work on YouTube Shorts when uploaded as 9:16 full-bleed creative, and on Gmail with a simplified ad flow. Google states advertisers adding Gmail to Demand Gen campaigns see image creatives achieve a 40 percent increase in conversions at the same ROI on average. Affiliate location extensions place promoted pins in Google Maps for retail networks and dealerships, and YouTube is adding AI-assisted product Q&A alongside product feeds through the Ask YouTube bot.

This hits any advertiser already running Demand Gen, and especially retailers, dealer networks, and multi-location brands that need local demand routed to a specific store. Not turning on these formats before Q4 spend accelerates means the same budget buys fewer conversions than a competitor who did.

The move this week, under an hour: log into Google Ads, open your active Demand Gen campaigns, and confirm you have 9:16 full-bleed image assets uploaded so Shorts one-click applies. If you have a Gmail placement toggle available, enable it. If you run multi-location retail, add affiliate location extensions. Leave AI product Q&A for later, since it is still rolling out.

Google official blog: Demand Gen September 2026 dropSocial Media Today on the Demand Gen update

Checked, and quiet

Nothing material moved this week on LinkedIn B2B buying behavior beyond a reshare of prior insights, and Instagram's algorithm commentary from Adam Mosseri repeated points already in circulation. Meta AI agent data-use debates and YouTube's conversational editing preview are worth watching but did not produce an operator move this week. We will pick them up when there is a change that costs or earns you money.