Deltech Solutions Blog

Chrome now updates every two weeks: what it means for your site

2026-10-05T12:00:00Z

Since September 8, with the arrival of Chrome 153, Google ships a stable version of its browser every two weeks instead of every four. Google announced the change in March and it's now in effect: Chrome 154 followed two weeks later, and the pace will continue.

What happened

The change covers Chrome on every platform: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. According to Google, each release will be smaller, which lowers the risk of bugs and makes it easier to trace a problem back to its source when one appears.

Stable: a new version every two weeks, with security fixes and new features.
Beta: also every two weeks, arriving about three weeks before stable. This is the one to test with.
Extended Stable: the option for businesses that need more breathing room stays on its eight-week cycle.

Chrome is the world's most used browser, so its calendar largely sets the pace for the whole web.

What it means for your business

For most users this is good news: security patches arrive sooner, and browser vulnerabilities stay exposed for less time.

For anyone with a website or web app, the message is different: the environment your customers view your site in changes twice as fast. Each Chrome release can bring new features, but also changes to how certain elements render, to cookies or to privacy. Most of them don't affect anything, but now and then an update breaks a form, a checkout or an integration, and at this pace there are more chances for that to happen.

The real problem is not noticing. Many small business sites only get checked when a customer reports that something isn't working.

Regularly check the critical parts of your site in the latest Chrome: contact forms, cart and checkout, bookings, login.
If you have a custom web app, test it in Chrome Beta. That way you catch problems about three weeks before they reach your customers.
Set up some form of error alerts, such as a monitoring tool or notifications on your forms, so you know when something breaks without waiting to be told.
For companies with many computers, consider whether the eight-week Extended Stable channel suits you, at the cost of getting new features later.
Keep your own browser up to date. It's the simplest way to get security patches as soon as they ship.

In short

Chrome now updates twice as fast. That's better for security, but it means checking more often that your site still works as it should. If you'd like maintenance that reviews your site on a regular schedule, let's talk.

66% of small businesses now use AI, U.S. Chamber report finds

2026-10-05T13:00:00Z

On October 2, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published the fifth edition of its report on technology and small businesses. The headline: 66% of small businesses now use artificial intelligence, up from 23% in 2023. In three years, adoption has nearly tripled.

What happened

The report, produced by the Chamber's Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC), includes several figures that capture the moment well:

66% of small businesses use AI (23% in 2023).
47% say AI is creating jobs today, versus only 6% who say it's letting them reduce headcount.
95% of those using AI are training their staff to make the most of it.
41% already use six or more technology platforms, up 9 points from 2025.
84% plan to increase their use of technology over the next two to three years.
78% of those using these technologies say limiting access would slow their growth.

It also flags a concern: six in ten small businesses worry about higher legal and compliance costs from a patchwork of state privacy and AI laws.

What it means for your business

AI is no longer just for big companies. If two out of three small businesses already use it, the question isn't whether to adopt it, but where it adds real value in yours. And the report dispels a common fear: in the vast majority of cases it isn't used to cut staff, but to help the team do more.

The uses that pay off most for a small business tend to be the most practical ones:

Customer service: answering common questions by chat or email around the clock.
Marketing: drafting posts, emails and product descriptions.
Admin work: sorting email, pulling data from invoices, summarizing meetings.
Your website: forms that qualify leads, internal search, or assistants that guide customers.

Two words of caution. First, data: don't put sensitive customer information into tools without checking their privacy terms. Second, quality: AI-generated content needs human review, especially if it's published on your site (Google penalizes mass-produced content with no value).

Pick one specific process that eats your time every week, not "AI in general."
Start with existing tools before investing in custom development.
Measure the result: hours saved, faster replies or more leads. If you can't tell the difference, change course.
Train your team, as 95% of the businesses in the report do. The tool alone isn't enough.
Once a process works, integrate it into your systems (website, CRM, invoicing) so the savings stick.

In short

AI is now a routine tool for small businesses and, according to the Chamber, it's adding jobs rather than cutting them. What matters is starting with a concrete problem and measuring the outcome. If you'd like to see where it could help your business or your website, tell us about your case.

Google rolls out its fourth spam update of the year

2026-10-05T14:00:00Z

On September 24, Google started rolling out its September 2026 spam update. It's the fourth of the year, after March, June and August, and it comes with one notable difference: Google says it may take up to two weeks to complete, while the previous ones wrapped up in a day or two.

What happened

Google announced the update on its official Search status dashboard, without a blog post or any detail about which kind of spam it targets. What it did confirm:

It applies worldwide and in all languages.
It's a spam update, not a core update. It doesn't change how Google judges quality in general, but how it detects practices that break its policies.
The rollout may take up to two weeks. As of this writing (October 5), the dashboard hadn't marked it complete.

During the rollout it's normal to see rankings move up and down for many sites, including ones doing nothing wrong, because results get reshuffled as other pages drop.

What it means for your business

If your site follows good practices, this update shouldn't hurt you, and it may even help if you were competing with low-quality pages. The risk lies in a few tactics that have become common and that Google's policies explicitly penalize:

Scaled low-quality content: publishing dozens of automatically generated pages (with or without AI) just to rank, with no value for the reader.
Near-identical pages per city or service ("plumber in city A", "plumber in city B") that only swap the place name.
Bought or traded links to climb the rankings.
Renting out sections of your domain to third parties for content that has nothing to do with your business.

Using AI to write isn't a problem in itself. Google doesn't single it out as a target; what it penalizes is content mass-produced to manipulate results.

Don't make big changes while the rollout is underway. The swings these days aren't final, and overhauling your site blindly can make things worse.
Once it's done, compare in Search Console the clicks and impressions for the two weeks after September 24 against the two weeks before.
If you've clearly lost traffic, review your site against Google's spam policies and remove or improve the problem pages. Recovery isn't immediate: it can take months for Google to recognize the changes.
If nothing changed, carry on. Useful content written for your customers is still the best protection against these updates.

In short

It's a routine spam update, just longer than usual. Wait for it to finish before drawing conclusions and, if your traffic drops, check your site against Google's policies instead of improvising. If you'd like us to analyze the impact on your site, let's talk.

Critical WordPress flaw attacked within hours of the patch

2026-10-05T15:00:00Z

On September 22, WordPress released version 7.1.2 to fix a single security flaw in its core, tracked as CVE-2026-87902. Exploiting it doesn't require logging in, and attacks started the same day. If your website runs on WordPress, check which version it's on today.

What happened

The flaw sits in the part of WordPress that decides which page template to display. An attacker with no account on the site can trick it into loading a PHP file from outside the theme folder. On certain server setups, that leads to remote code execution: the attacker can run their own commands on your server.

Affected versions: every release from 4.7.0 through 7.1.1.
Fixed versions: 7.1.2, plus equivalent patches for older branches (7.0.6, 6.9.9, 6.8.10 and so on down to 4.7.37). Versions 4.6 and earlier no longer receive patches.
Severity: WordPress's advisory rates it critical (9.2 out of 10). The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added it to its catalog of actively exploited vulnerabilities on September 25.

Security firm CrowdSec saw the first attack attempt within hours of the patch going out, and by September 28 it had logged more than 30,000 distinct IP addresses probing for the flaw. It's a familiar pattern: attackers study the patch to learn exactly what to target, then go after every site that hasn't updated yet.

What it means for your business

Full remote code execution isn't possible on every server: it needs a specific combination of PHP and theme configuration. That's not a reason to wait, for two reasons:

You don't know how your server is configured unless you've checked. Many shared hosting plans use default settings that meet some of those conditions.
The attacks are automated. Nobody picks your site by hand: bots sweep the internet for any WordPress install that hasn't been updated. A small business is as much a target as a large one.

A compromised site can end up redirecting your customers to scam pages, sending spam from your domain, or getting flagged as dangerous by Google, with the drop in traffic and trust that follows.

Check your version now. In the WordPress dashboard, go to Dashboard → Updates. You should see 7.1.2 or the patched version for your branch.
If it isn't updated, update today. WordPress installs minor security releases automatically by default, but many sites have that turned off or leave it to the hosting provider. Don't assume it's done.
Take a backup first, in case an older plugin misbehaves after the update.
If you're on a version older than 4.7, migrate. It no longer gets patches and will stay exposed to this and future flaws.
Look for suspicious activity since September 22: admin users you don't recognize, new PHP files, or content you didn't change.

In short

This is a serious flaw that's easy to attack and is already being exploited at scale. The fix is simple: update WordPress. If you're not sure how, or whether your site is affected, get in touch and we'll check it with you.

Deltech Solutions Blog

Chrome now updates every two weeks: what it means for your site

What happened

What it means for your business

What we recommend

In short

66% of small businesses now use AI, U.S. Chamber report finds

What happened

What it means for your business

What we recommend

In short

Google rolls out its fourth spam update of the year

What happened

What it means for your business

What we recommend

In short

Critical WordPress flaw attacked within hours of the patch

What happened

What it means for your business

What we recommend

In short