This will not be a banner year for the real estate app Zillow. “We describe the home market as bouncing along the bottom,” CEO Jeremy Wacksman said in our conversation this week. Last year was dismal for the real estate market, and he expects things to improve only marginally in 2026. (If January’s historic drop in home sales is indicative, that even is overoptimistic.) “The way to think about it is that there were 4.1 million existing homes sold last year—a normal market is 5.5 to 6 million,” Wacksman says. He hastens to add that Zillow itself is doing better than the real estate industry overall. Still, its valuation is a quarter of its high-water mark in 2021. A few hours after we spoke, Wacksman announced that Zillow’s earnings had increased last quarter. Nonetheless, Zillow’s stock price fell nearly 5 percent the next day.

Wacksman does see a bright spot—AI. Like every other company in the world, generative AI presents both an opportunity and a risk to Zillow’s business. Wacksman much prefers to dwell on the upside. “We think AI is actually an ingredient rather than a threat,” he said on the earnings call. “In the last couple years, the LLM revolution has really opened all of our eyes to what’s possible,” he tells me. Zillow is integrating AI into every aspect of its business, from the way it showcases houses to having agents automate its workflow. Wacksman marvels that with Gen AI, you can search for “homes near my kid’s new school, with a fenced-in yard, under $3,000 a month.” On the other hand, his customers might wind up making those same queries on chatbots operated by OpenAI and Google, and Wacksman must figure out how to make their next step a jump to Zillow.

In its 20-year history—Zillow celebrated the anniversary this week—the company has always used AI. Wacksman, who joined in 2009 and became CEO in 2024, notes that machine learning is the engine behind those “Zestimates” that gauge a home’s worth at any given moment. Zestimates became a viral sensation that helped make the app irresistible, and sites like Zillow Gone Wild—which is also a TV show on the HGTV network—have built a business around highlighting the most intriguing or bizarre listings.

More recently, Zillow has spent billions aggressively pursuing new technology. One ongoing effort is upleveling the presentation of homes for sale. A feature called SkyTour uses an AI technology called Gaussian Splatting to turn drone footage into a 3D rendering of the property. (I love typing the words “Gassian Splatting” and can’t believe an indie band hasn’t adopted it yet.) AI also powers a feature inside Zillow’s Showcase component called Virtual Staging, which supplies homes with furniture that doesn’t really exist. There is risky ground here: Once you abandon the authenticity of an actual photo, the question arises whether you’re actually seeing a trustworthy representation of the property. “It’s important that both buyer and seller understand the line between Virtual Staging and the reality of a photo,” says Wacksman. “A virtually staged image has to be clearly watermarked and disclosed.” He says he’s confident that licensed professionals will abide by rules, but as AI becomes dominant, “we have to evolve those rules,” he says.

Right now, Zillow estimates that only a single-digit percentage of its users take advantage of these exotic display features. Particularly disappointing is a foray called Zillow Immerse, which runs on the Apple Vision Pro. Upon rollout in February 2024, Zillow called it “the future of home tours.” Note that it doesn’t claim to be the near-future. “That platform hasn’t yet come to broad consumer prominence,” says Wacksman of Apple’s underperforming innovation. “I do think that VR and AR are going to come.”

Zillow is on more solid ground using AI to make its own workforce more productive. “It’s helping us do our job better,” says Wacksman, who adds that programmers are churning out more code, customer support tasks have been automated, and design teams have shortened timelines for implementing new products. As a result, he says, Zillow has been able to keep its headcount “relatively flat.” (Zillow did cut some jobs recently, but Wacksman says that involved “a handful of folks that were not meeting a performance bar.”)

Running with wet feet, in wet socks, in wet shoes is the perfect recipe for blisters. It’s also a fast track to low morale. Nothing dampens spirits quicker than soaked socks. On ultra runs, I always carry spares. And when faced with wet, or even snowy, mid-winter miles, the lure of weatherproof shoes is strong. Anything that can stem the soggy tide is worth a go, right?

This isn’t as simple an answer as it sounds. In the past, a lot of runners—that includes me—felt waterproof shoes came with too many trade-offs, like thicker, heavier uppers that change the feel of your shoes or a tendency to run hot and sweaty. In general, weatherproof shoes are less comfortable.

But waterproofing technology has evolved, and it might be time for a rethink. Winterized shoes can now be as light as the regular models, breathability is better, and the comfort levels have improved. Brands are also starting to add extra puddle protection to some of the most popular shoes. So it’s time to ask the questions again: Just how much difference does a bit of Gore-Tex really make? Are there still trade-offs for that extra protection? And is it really worth paying the premium?

I spoke to the waterproofing pros, an elite ultra runner who has braved brutal conditions, and some expert running shoe testers. Here’s everything you need to know about waterproof running shoes in 2026. Need more information? Check out our guide to the Best Running Shoes, our guide to weatherproof fabrics, and our guide to the Best Rain Jackets.

How Do Waterproof Running Shoes Work?

On a basic level, waterproof shoes add extra barriers between your nice dry socks and the wet world outside. If you’re running through puddles deep enough to breach your heel collars, you’re still going to get wet feet. But waterproof shoes can protect against rain, wet grass, snow, and smaller puddles.

Gore-Tex is probably the most common waterproofing tech in footwear, but it’s not the only solution in town. Some brands have proprietary tech, or you might come across alternative systems like eVent and Sympatex. That GTX stamp is definitely the one you’re most likely to encounter, so here’s how GTX works.

The water resistance comes from a layered system that is composed of a durable water repellent (DWR) coating to the uppers with an internal membrane, along with other details like taped seams, more sealed uppers with tighter woven mesh, gusseted tongues, and higher, gaiter-style heel collars.

The UK government is launching a call for evidence on how technology, changing market dynamics and regulation are shaping investment in mobile networks.

The call for evidence was introduced as an important step in securing a “comprehensive” view of how the UK mobile market was changing, and identifying what more can be done to support investment, innovation and competition for the benefit of consumers and business. It will look to assess the impact of factors affecting investment in high-quality connectivity by 2030, identify actions to support the sector to achieve government objectives over the next decade, and assess how the regulatory framework can be improved to support investment, innovation and competition.

As part of this, the government is announcing an action plan based on four key principles: drive investment in comprehensive, high-quality connectivity by 2030; deliver for consumers; support innovation and growth across the economy; and provide secure and resilient connectivity.

Introducing the call, Liz Lloyd, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and minister for digital economy, said that in an era of rapid technological transformation, new technologies and wireless services were critical to day-to-day lives, the economy and society in general.

Lloyd added that digital infrastructure is the core enabler of this transformation, and that it was crucial the UK’s telecommunications networks were ready for the future. She stressed that mobile and other digital networks, such as fibre networks, will drive growth and innovation across the country, deliver modern public services, increasingly underpin critical national infrastructure, and be essential for ensuring people everywhere were digitally included.

To that end, she said, its ambition remains for all populated areas to have access to higher-quality standalone 5G by 2030, and the immediate challenge was to secure investment to deliver this ambition by 2030, driving digital inclusion and ensuring business could depend on the connectivity that underpins modern life.  

“Our coverage ambition goes hand in hand with affordability of access so that everyone can carry out essential online activities and, aligned with the government’s tech adoption agenda, supports take-up of premium 5G-enabled services across the economy,” said Lloyd.

Looking forward, Lloyd said the government must also anticipate how the mobile market – and technologies that underpin it – will evolve, and what this means for its objectives over the next decade, shaping a framework that supports innovation, investment and the needs of future users.

In its action plan, the minister referenced the digital inclusion action plan, in which access to secure and reliable connectivity was seen as the foundation to ensuring that people everywhere can get online. That said, delivering these benefits was dependent on substantial investment in mobile networks.

To date, the UK mobile network operators have been investing heavily in the country’s mobile networks, averaging £2bn annually between 2020 and 2024. In particular, as a result of the merger between the two component parties, VodafoneThree has committed to investing £11bn in creating its merged network, while competitors BTEE and Virgin Media O2 have also planned to invest in upgrading their networks. For example, BTEE has an ambition to deliver standalone 5G to 99% of the population by the end of 2030.

Lloyd assured that the UK government would support industry to deliver this investment, including through removing barriers to deployment and ensuring digital connectivity is appropriately considered and built into new infrastructure projects from the outset. However, she warned that the UK mobile sector stands at a critical inflection point of rapid market changes, coupled with persistent investment challenges.

Lloyd said governments and regulators across the globe are considering how their telecoms policies and regulatory frameworks can best drive innovation and investment in this new era. That, she emphasised, is why it is necessary to act immediately to understand the challenges, safeguard the UK’s international competitiveness, and deliver the high-quality, nationwide connectivity the UK relies on.

The call to action and the four-point plan were designed to realise the potential of the mobile sector, and the UK government said it recognised that doing so would require concerted and coordinated action across government and industry, to deliver the coverage needed in this decade and shape the mobile market for the future.

The government said that, in creating its call to evidence, it welcomed responses from across the ecosystem, including mobile operators, infrastructure providers, technology companies, local authorities, public sector bodies, civil society organisations, academia and investors. The call will run until 11:59pm on 21 April 2026.