MAM
Keep your kids engaged with audiobooks from Audible
Mumbai: With the advent of technology and the unpredictable Covid-19 impositions, digital consumption and frequent exposure to screen time have impacted countless young lives. According to a survey conducted in 2022, 57 per cent of children prefer watching TV. As a result, children spend a lot of their free time glued to digital screens which can be attributed to the increase in accessibility of kid-friendly engaging content on OTT and TV. However, excess screen time is not good for their eyes and overall development. Therefore, encourage your kids to listen to audiobooks, podcasts, and audio series. From literary classics, folk and fantasy tales, celebrity-narrated fables, and kid’s yoga books to a compilation of inspiring stories, find these interesting audiobooks only on Audible.
Little Baby Bum: Time To Dream (Series 1)
Written by: Angela Salt and Narrated by: Sian Brooke, and Scott Reid
Gently drift off your young ones to sleep with Audible’s Little Baby Bum: Time To Dream, with soothing nursery rhymes welcoming little ones into a peaceful night’s sleep. These quintessential nursery rhymes on Audible are perfect for parents who can’t always make time for a bedtime storytelling session for their kids. Curated for children aged one-two, these narrations transport listeners into a magical world of tranquil soundscapes with calming scores and lulling ambient sounds.
Lellobee City Farm: Grandma Mei’s Fantastic Folktales (Series 1)
Written by: Allan Plenderleith and Narrated by: Louise Mei Newberry
Kids love tales passionately and this Audible podcast is an adventurous treat for your children. In Lellobee City, best friends Ella and Rishi play together on Lellobee City Farm and enjoy the company of their wonderful Grandma Mei who narrates to them fantastic folktales collected from her travels around the world! Transport your children into the alluring and picturesque stories set in a Brazilian rainforest narrated by Grandma Mei complemented with realistic atmospheric background scores used in this podcast.
Dolly Parton’s Billy the Kid Makes It Big
Written and Narrated By: Dolly Parton
The exemplary music singer Dolly Parton accounts a story about her god-dog, a French bulldog ‘Billy the Kid’ who is trying to make it big as a country music star in Nashville, Tennessee. This audiobook is a delightful interpretation of standing up to people who put you down and finding the drive to achieve your dreams. Billy has a scuffle with his fellow barking friends and is dismayed due to his melancholic condition. This led him to rely on his favorite country music and the singer Dolly Parton to regain his self-confidence. This motivational tale with a pet protagonist will inspire your young ones to face their challenges head-on as they embark on their journey to achieve their dreams.
Written by: Heather Fawcett and Narrated by: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
Mixed with magic and plenty of adventure, this seaside story of siblings on a treasure hunt is perfect for fantasy fans. The Snolly sisters discover three islands in their backyard while vacationing in their grandfather’s seaside property, The Misty Coven for the summer. Bee Snolly and her sister begin to believe in magic as these mysterious islands withhold a secret that helps the siblings assist their ailing grandfather on the path of recovery. This is a wonderful allegory to teach your children the values of faith, gratitude, and responsibility, so make sure to tune into The Islands of Elsewhere on Audible.
10 Most Inspiring Stories for Kids
Written by: Hans Christian Andersen and others Narrated by: Katie Haigh
Classic tales and stories are fundamental to children’s cognitive and creative development, as they awaken the imagination and bring essential teachings. These stories inspire children through important archetypes and symbolic imagery; they help children envisage fantastic worlds, full of possibilities and wonders. This specially designed compilation includes classic folk tales, and famous stories by Hans Christian Andersen and provides children with a formative overview of the best of children’s classics. The audiobook is an impeccable compilation of classic literature you must indulge your kids in.
Brands
Google says Gemini AI cuts irrelevant ads by 40 percent
AI driven search and ad tools boost relevance and results for brands.
MUMBAI: In the never ending hunt for the right ad at the right moment, artificial intelligence may finally be sharpening the aim. Google says the integration of its multimodal AI models, Gemini, has reduced irrelevant advertisements across its platforms by 40 percent, as improved query understanding allows ads to match user intent more closely.
Speaking at a roundtable on Thursday, Google vice president of Global Ads Dan Taylor said the company has been steadily deploying Gemini powered upgrades to interpret complex search queries more accurately. “We have been making Gemini based improvements to query understanding at a rate of almost one launch per month over the last two years. As the models improve and our ability to deploy them improves, ad quality continues to get better,” Taylor said.
The improvements come as Google leans deeper into AI driven advertising tools. According to the company, 2025 saw a threefold increase in Gemini generated creative assets produced by advertisers using its AI powered ad solutions.
The company also highlighted how these tools are influencing marketing performance for brands in India.
Insurance marketplace Policybazaar recorded a 28 percent rise in health insurance sales while reducing cost per sale by 23 percent after adopting AI Max, a tool that interprets natural language search queries to improve ad targeting.
Meanwhile, hospitality platform OYO reported 50 percent higher return on ad spend (ROAS) and a 25 percent reduction in cost per acquisition after combining its existing search campaigns with Google’s Performance Max (PMax) advertising campaigns.
Taylor noted that evolving consumer behaviour is also reshaping how brands approach digital advertising. According to Google’s data, 86 percent of shoppers in India using Google Search said they were open to trying new brands or products, suggesting that AI driven discovery tools could increasingly influence purchase decisions.
Beyond advertising, Google is also investing in what it calls agentic commerce, an emerging model where AI agents autonomously assist users in discovering, comparing and purchasing products online.
“Our goal with agentic commerce is twofold, first, to remove the grunt work of shopping so consumers can focus on the fun parts; and second, to work hand in hand with the industry to build the foundations needed to make agentic commerce seamless and secure across the web,” Taylor said.
The push into AI enhanced advertising and commerce comes as Google’s core ads business continues to grow. The company recently reported $82.28 billion in advertising revenue, marking a 13.5 percent year on year increase.
For advertisers navigating an increasingly crowded digital landscape, Google is betting that smarter algorithms and sharper intent signals will make ads feel less like interruptions and more like timely suggestions.
