Tag: Google
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Google Antitrust Ruling: No Breakup, But… Changes Ahead and Unresolved Issues
Federal Judge Amit P. Mehta delivered a landmark ruling this week in the long-awaited Google antitrust case, but the decision reveals the complex challenges of regulating Big Tech in the AI age. While Google avoided the breakup many expected, the ruling introduces significant new oversight measures that could reshape how…
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Google’s Watermarking of AI Images and Text
In a significant move for digital content integrity, Google has introduced SynthID, a tool designed to watermark and detect AI-generated images. This innovation addresses a growing challenge in the digital age: distinguishing between real and AI-created visuals. As the capabilities of AI evolve, it has become increasingly difficult to identify…
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Bing Adding Generative Search Experience (AI Search Results)
Microsoft’s Bing search engine is introducing a new generative search experience, currently being rolled out to a small percentage of user queries. This new feature combines the power of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) with traditional search results to create dynamic, tailored responses to user queries. Bing provided…
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Google AI Cracking Down on Fake Business Reviews
To tackle the rise of false internet reviews that hurt local companies and mislead customers, Google has turned to artificial intelligence (AI). More than 170 million bogus reviews were removed by the corporation in 2023—a 45% rise from the year before. Local business owners who have suffered from false reviews…
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Google Shutting Down Websites Built on Google Business Profile (BGP)
Websites made through Google Business Profiles will shut down on March 1st, reports SearchEngineLand. When visitors attempt to access these sites after that date, they will be redirected to the associated Google Business Profile until June 10th. After June 10th, visitors will receive a “page not found” error. Businesses using these…
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Google Begins Phase Out of Third-Party Cookies for Chrome Users
According to a new report by Engadget, Google has disabled third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users globally on January 4th, marking the start of its Privacy Sandbox project that was first introduced years ago. With Chrome accounting for over 50% of the worldwide browser market share, this initial rollout…
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Major Tech and Research Organizations Launch AI Alliance to Promote Open Innovation
A new alliance aimed at promoting open innovation and scientific progress in artificial intelligence was announced today. The AI Alliance brings together over 50 leading technology companies, academic institutions, and research centers to collaborate on advancing AI in an ethical, inclusive, and transparent manner. The founding members of the AI…
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Major Technology Companies Join Forces on Responsible AI Development
Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI have formed the Frontier Model Forum, a new consortium focused on advancing safe and responsible AI. The Forum aims to benefit the AI community by developing best practices, evaluating capabilities and risks, and enabling research access. Key goals include: Membership is open to organizations developing…
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Analyzing Searcher Intent Signals for Better SEO Content
Understanding user intent is central to effective SEO content creation. Search engines are getting increasingly sophisticated at detecting the underlying needs and goals behind each query. In order to rank for those queries, your content must align with searcher intent. By researching and analyzing intent signals around your target keywords,…
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Apple, Google Privacy Changes May Disrupt Tracking, Attribution
Both Apple and Google are anticipated to implement new privacy enhancements alongside the release of their upcoming platform updates. In the case of iOS 17, which will enter public beta in July before its official launch in September, Apple plans to automatically eliminate link trackers from URLs transmitted through Message…
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Apple, Amazon Are Wealthier than 92% of the Countries in the World
A new study by Clario Tech has analyzed which tech giants are wealthier than entire countries! Tech giant, Apple dominates global industry and has reached a colossal value of $2.2 trillion. This study shows just how large Apple and other tech giants would be if they were recognized countries on Earth. Looking…
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DOJ v Google: Don’t Expect Action for Years
It’s going to be a very long time before the government gets a day in court against the big tech firms, at least if you look at the Department of Justice complaint against Google as an indication. The tentative trial date for court action is September of 2023. “If anybody…
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Google’s Top Searches in 2020
Google says people asked “Why” in searches more than ever before. They also asked “What day is it?” a lot. Overall, here are the top five searches in 2020 in the US. Election results Coronavirus Kobe Bryant Coronavirus update Coronavirus symptoms Globally, results were similar: Coronavirus Election results Kobe Bryant…
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House Reports Claims Anticompetitive Behavior by Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook
“Our investigation leaves no doubt that there is a clear and compelling need for Congress and the antitrust enforcement agencies to take action that restores competition, improves innovation, and safeguards our democracy.” Rep. David Cicilline After reviewing more than 1.3 million internal documents and interviewing more than 240 people and…
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Big Changes Coming to Digital Ad Tracking: A Cookie-less Future?
We’re in for some big changes when it comes to tracking and advertising. While government regulators are making noise about taking action against major tech companies, the industry has not-so-quietly been making a couple of key changes that could lead to a cookie-less future. Cookies are those things websites use…
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SEM: Is There Value in the Google Guaranteed Program?
Here’s a new wrinkle to Google search for local businesses. Advertisers on Google can now display a green checkmark, which Google will tag businesses with either “Google Screened” or “Google Guaranteed.” It’s only available right now for certain categories of business, such as law, financial planning, and real estate for…
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Facebook Threatens to Stop Allowing News Sharing over Pending Legislation in Australia
Facebook is publicly ramping up the battle with the Australian government over pending legislation that would force it to pay royalties for use of copyrighted news content. It’s a battle being watched closely in both media and tech circles because the implications go farther than just what’s happening in Australia.…
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Anti-Trust Hearings Against Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google: What’s at Stake
Nearly half of Americans now believe major tech companies should face more regulation. That was one key finding in a new survey by the Pew Research Center. The survey was released as a House Judiciary Committee is looking into tech companies. Specifically, they are examining anti-trust concerns. Google, Facebook, Amazon,…
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Mobile Speed is Crucial in Today’s Mobile World
Google and Deloitte combined forces to look at mobile load times for 30 days across four verticals: Retail Luxury Travel Lead generation (such as insurance or auto sites) The results, published in a Whitepaper titled “Milliseconds make Millions,” were clear: 1. Faster sites mean more customers will reach checkout 2.…
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Morning Consult Poll: Only 8% Trust News Media to Do the Right Things
When you look at the top line results of the survey from Morning Consult, it’s scary. Only 8% of American have a lot of trust in the news media. Media does better than just a few others: The US Government, Wall Street, and Hollywood which rank at the bottom of…
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A Game-Changer for Internet Privacy
You’ve probably never heard of it, but a new protocol called DOH could be a game-changer for online privacy. DOH stands for DNS-over-HTTPS. It would encrypt DNS traffic within your browser and hide requests and responses. When you enter a website’s URL into a web browser, it’s sent to the…
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Google says New Algorithm Update is “One of the Biggest Leaps Forward in the History of Search”
“With the latest advancements from our research team in the science of language understanding–made possible by machine learning–we’re making a significant improvement to how we understand queries, representing the biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search,”…
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Google to Recognize Original Reporting in Search Rankings
We’ve seen it play out too many times. One news outlet puts significant resources into reporting a story. As soon as it goes online, it’s being reported by other media. The place that broke the story quickly cedes control as higher- rated websites rank higher in search. Often, cloned copies…
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Facing a $5 Billion Fine, Facebook Adds $10 Billion in Market Value
“Facebook’s infringements of the 2011 consent decree and its pattern of violating user trusts have been both vast and brazen.” – Letter to FTC from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) The Senators are reacting to word that’s leaked out that Facebook will by…
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Should Content Creators Share in the Wealth from Search Engines?
Here’s an idea: tech companies pay you for the data you provide. State lawmakers in California, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom have proposed assessing a financial value on the personal data companies collect about their users. The LA Times reports that there is a research team looking at the issue…
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The Justice Department Investigation into Google: What We Know
Facebook’s gotten a lot of attention lately by legislators and regulators, but now the attention is shifting towards Google. The Justice Department is focusing on advertising and search, but the exact focus is unclear according to the Washington Post. CNBC reports that investigation is about whether the tech company violated…
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New EU Copyright Rules Could Be a Major Disruptor for Google, YouTube, et al
New copyright rules have been voted in by the European Parliament that could be a major disruptor for Google, YouTube, and other digital platforms. Musicians and content creators have pushed for the legislation. Others argue that it destroys user-generated content. Here are the two clauses that are generating the attention:…
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Google+ May Be Saved After All… Kind Of
If you’re one of those folks (like me) that embraced Google+ when it started out, you may have been surprised (like me) when the company announced it was shutting down. It was an ambitious project for the internet giant, but they admitted defeat in October. People, it seemed, just didn’t…
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85% of Websites Fail to Meet Google Page Load Speed Standards
The faster your mobile site loads, the better you’ll look to Google’s robots when it scans your site. Slow-loading websites are now being penalized in the algorithm while fast-loading sites are rewarded. Google recommend your site loads on mobile in 5 seconds or less. Research from Unbounce, however, shows that…
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Amazon is predicting what you want and sending out free samples
Amazon is apparently beta-testing a new advertising strategy that leverages its logistics and delivery expertise with its massive treasure trove of consumer data. A report in Axios says Amazon has teamed up with advertisers Maybelline and Folgers to send free samples to users with a predilection for purchasing their products. …
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Google wins, Facebook loses in lawsuits over use of Facial Recognition
Two different ruling in privacy cases over use of biometric data called “faceprints.” A federal judge threw out the lawsuit against Google. The judge ruled that the Illinois consumers that sued were unable to prove any damages. Lindabeth Rivera and Jospeh Weiss were the named plaintiffs in a class action…
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French regulators hit Google with $57 million fine for violations of GDPR
Google has been hit with a $57 million fine for violations of the EU’s GDRP privacy regulations. CNIL (French data protection regulators) concluded that Google had failed to comply with the law. Lack of Transparency When setting up Android phones, the regulators said Google did not disclose “essential information” to…
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Is Facebook facing record fines for violating its FTC privacy agreement?
The Federal Trade Commission is looking at what could be record-setting fines against Facebook, according to the Washington Post. It has to do with the binding agreement the social media company signed in 2011 to protect personal data. The fine would be for violating that agreement. The biggest fine to…
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Google Ads Now Features “Pay for Conversions” Option
Google has announced Pay for Conversion options for display campaigns. Choosing Target CPS in Conversions under the Bidding when setting up your Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) display unit will mean you only pay when someone converts on your website or app. You won’t be charged for clicks…
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Online Brand Search Spikes Within Seconds of TV Ads Airing
Advertise on TV and people will search for you online… almost instantly. As many as 90% of TV viewers have a digital device either in their hands or within reach while watching. “Forget the remote,” said Lisa Gevelber, VP Global Marketing at Google. “Smartphones are becoming the essential TV-watching companion.”…
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Google Is Under Investigation for Privacy Breach That Led Them to Shut down Google+
The best social network you probably never used is shutting down. After security problems that Google apparently didn’t report publicly, Google+ is closing down inAugust, 2019. The private data of half a million of Google+ users was exposed in early 2018, but the company never reported it at the time. …
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Digital Media Consumption Way Up: Winners and Losers
Overall digital media consumption grew by 15% in August alone, according to a Pivotal Media Research analysis of Nielsen’s August 2018 data as reported by Wayne Friedman in MediaPost. Winners and Losers Google goes up. Facebook goes down. Google products, including YouTube, Google, and Waze account for 32.8% of all…
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Google Algorithm: Low Traffic Does Not Equal Low Quality Content
Google’s John Mueller had some good news for bloggers (like me) when it comes to evaluating the quality of content. Just because it doesn’t have a lot of page views doesn’t mean Google’s algorithm will flag it as low quality. During a recent Google Webmaster Central hangout, he was asked…
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California passes new privacy law with greater consumer controls
It’s not perfect, but the new privacy laws passed by California that go into effect 1/1/20 will help give some consumers more control over their online data and what happens to it. The big deal is you can opt out of having your info sold. The law applies to businesses…
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Did Google violate the 2011 consent order by tracking users without permission?
Following an Associated Press report revealing that Google tracks user location even when users opt-out, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in D.C. contends the Google if violating the 2011 consent order on privacy issues. In the settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Google is not allowed to track users after…
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Location-Based Targeting and Geo-Reporting Key to Efficient Programmatic Ad Buys
When you are buying programmatic advertising, you need to know that not all programmatic platforms are created equally. It is very easy to waste a lot of money using inefficient platforms that scatter-shot your ads or show your digital ads in places where your services are not available. Geo-targeting and…
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Google hit with $5 Billion fine by EU regulators
Can a software maker require a hardware maker to pre-install its software apps on a device as a condition of doing business? We’ll find out. The European Union, which is taking digital privacy seriously, is now attacking on another front. With a whopping $5 billion fine against Google, added to…
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YouTube highlighting news, investing $25m in journalism grants
YouTube is committing $25m to fund video news operations in what it calls an effort to support “the future of news in online video.” Investment Details SOURCE: YouTube blog Expertise. We’re establishing a working group with news organizations and experts from around the world to help us develop new product features,…
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Do you trust social media to protect your privacy?
A new survey conducted by Washington-based digital agency Rad Campaign and analytics firm Lincoln Park Strategies has found 3 out of 5 Americans distrust social media when it comes to protecting their privacy online. Despite increased use of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat and use of smart speakers like Amazon Echo…
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How to Delete Your Google Search History
Like Facebook and Apple before it, Google has introduced a new user privacy policy to comply with a new European data privacy law — General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — that went into effect on May 25. Google’s updated privacy policy makes it easier to understand what information it collects about you. More importantly, Google has improved its privacy controls…
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Publishers could be required to get permission and pay to link to copyright material
Now that GDPR is the law in the European Union, lawmakers have their sights on copyright reform, which could have significant impact on the way websites work. They want to bring digital copyright laws across Europe into a unified code. According to the proposed legislation, it “provides for measures aiming at…
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The AdWords Illusion: Forget the sales funnel
I’ve written before about the problem with using “last-click attribution” as a key metric for deciding where and how to place your advertising. Who gets credit for driving customers? The last thing they visited. Many marketers are just counting the click and forgetting about all the other marketing it took…
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Why You Should Focus on Improving Google Citation
SEO affects every web page and when you have an internet business, you’ll need SEO for the site. SEO stands for ‘search engine optimization’. An internet site’s SEO assists you to determine precisely how well it’s going to rank on Google and also the other the search engines. Quite simply,…
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Facebook, Google hit with multi-billion dollars lawsuits on first day of GDPR privacy and consent rules
On day one of the new GDPR privacy and consent rules in the European Union, Google (and its Android operating system) and Facebook (including WhatsApp and Instagram) were served with lawsuits that allege the companies “coerce users” into sharing personal data in violation of the law. The lawsuits are asking…
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How Your Landing Page Can Impact Your Quality Score and Search Performance
According to Google, AdWords looks for how useful your landing page will be when someone clicks through your ad. They cite “well organized” and “relevant text” as measures, along with keyword matches. Improving Your Landing Page Quality Score Useful and original content – specific to the ad’s keyword Transparent and…
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Google will start flagging non-secure websites
Starting in September, websites that aren’t secure will start being flagged in Google’s Chrome browser. If your website starts with HTTP that means visitors will see something like this when they go to your site: If you haven’t switched to a secure site (HTTPS), it’s time. Chrome is the dominant…
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Listen to Google Duplex AI calling a hair salon and make an appointment
This is truly mind-blowing sci-fi stuff. If you haven’t heard Google Duplex yet, get ready to be impressed. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, wowed the crowd at I/O 2018 when he played back recordings of phone calls made by Google Assistant to book restaurant reservations and make hair appointments. You tell…
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Amazon Digital Ad Revenues: $2 Billion in Q1 2018?
Look out Goobook, here comes Amazon. We’ve been talking for a while about the emergence of Amazon as an online advertising platform. The numbers from Q1 2018 shows it’s no longer just talk. In just the first quarter of the year, Amazon announced earnings of more than $2 billion in…
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Strike Three for YouTube? Caught in yet Another Ad Scandal
More bad news YouTube: a new report claims the social video platform is once again serving ads for major advertisers on videos with objectionable content. This comes after identical claims last year that led to more than a hundred advertisers cancelling ads and boycotting YouTube. Google promised it would fix…
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Facebook & Google Ad Shares Are Slipping
Here’s a twist: eMarketer estimates that Facebook and Google’s share of advertising will decline in 2018. While they will still control 56.8% of US digital ad dollars, the company predicts, that’s a drop from 58.5% last year. If you’re thinking it has to do with Cambridge Analytica or privacy issues,…
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Google replaces goo.gl URL shortener with “Smart URLs”
We all know how frustrating it is when you click on a link to something you want to see, and it doesn’t go directly where you want to go. It’s more common in the App world, where you’re likely to launch the app but then have to search for the…
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The Facebook Love Affair Is Finally Over: Users Lose Trust
Two recent polls tell the story: Facebook has lost trust with its users. In light of the revelation that Cambridge America used data from 50 million Facebook users for political purposes without users permission, the social media company’s stock fell by 14% in last week’s trading and #DeleteFacebook continues to…
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With the Rise of Ad Blockers and Privacy Concerns, Can We Reverse “Ad Avoidance?”
Let’s face it. Most folks don’t like ads. They put up with them in order to get free access. But these days, more people are saying “enough is enough.” Consumers are bombarded by more than 10,000 messages every day. Is it any wonder they are trying to avoid looking at…
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Youtube Reminds Publishers who is in Control – Cuts Revenue to Small Guys
“One of YouTube’s core values is to provide anyone the opportunity to earn money from a thriving channel,” said the email I got from YouTube. Apparently their “anyone” doesn’t include me. YouTube says it is tightening its rules and raising the minimum threshold of subscribers you must have in order to…
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8 Ways to Build a Personal Brand
For years, marketers have worked with companies to build their brand. Cementing a brand message into a consumer’s mind makes sure you’ll get a shot at their business when they need your service. Imagine your air conditioner stops working and it’s 95 degrees outside. You’ll head to your computer and…
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Google Proposes New Standards to Speed Up Mobile Page Load Times
On the mobile web, and really everywhere, there’s a real need for speed. The average person clicks away from mobile content if it doesn’t load quickly. Yet the average page loads s-l-o-w-l-y. Something’s got to give. How bad is it? Google’s 2017 study showed the average mobile landing page takes…
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Social Media for Publishers: Revenue Doesn’t Match Investment
Despite all the work media companies put into their Facebook and other social media channels, it has not turned into any significant source of revenue. If you’re in the business you know that. You get some traffic from social media, but not any real dollars. A research report by trade…
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Google Chrome Browser Live with Built-In Ad Blocker
The new version of Google’s chrome browser is now live, with its built-in ad blocker. Here’s the short version of what it will block going forward: And here’s Google’s explanation of how it will work. Chrome – the world’s most popular web browser (56% market share) will automatically block ads…
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Insider Secrets of the Google 3-Pack
Getting ranked in the Google 3-pack of local businesses has never been more important. With the big shift from desktop to mobile in the past couple of years, it has become easier for local businesses to get featured based on proximity to the mobile user. That opens huge opportunities for…
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YouTube shuts down monetization for smaller contributors
“One of YouTube’s core values is to provide anyone the opportunity to earn money from a thriving channel,” said the email I got from YouTube this morning. Apparently their “anyone” doesn’t include me. YouTube says it is tightening its rules and raising the minimum threshold of subscribers you must have in…
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Seismic Shifts in Digital Marketing in 2018
As we look ahead to 2018, there are some clear pattern emerging when it comes to digital marketing and advertising. What’s in and out? Here are my predictions for 2018: Content Marketing, SEO, and Value Exchange With the reduced reach of social and the continuing fragmentation of media, marketers are finding…
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Google is moving to mobile-first indexing
Google gave webmasters plenty of warning — more than a year — but it now appears they are ready to step up efforts on indexing mobile websites and serving results based on what they find. Currently, Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking algortihms look at desktop version. Now, they will switch to mobile-first indexing. “Mobile-first…
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Winners and losers in a rapidly consolidating digital advertising market
Good News for digital ad sellers: Digital Advertising is expected to finish the year with a year-to-year growth rate of 11.5% in 2017 and grow again in 2018 by 11.3%. That information comes from GroupM/WPP, the world’s largest buyer of advertising. Magna (IPG Mediabrands) pegs 2018 digital growth at 13%.…
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Quartz: Android phones send location data even when location services are turned off
“When you use Google services, we may collect and process information about your actual location. We use various technologies to determine location, including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that may, for example, provide Google with information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.” – Google Privacy Policy Google says it collects…
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Year-long Google study of the dark web shows how accounts get hacked
The folks at Google teamed up with Carnegie Mellon to undertake an extensive study on how accounts get compromised. By searing the dark web, they identified some troubling things: 788,000 potential victims of off-the-shelf keyloggers 4 million potential victims of phishing kits 9 billion usernames and passwords exposed via data…
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Where does Google go when it wants to roll out a new product? Television.
YouTube TV is rolling out across the country, starting in select markets, which will feature a so-called “skinny bundle” of TV channels, including local channels. It is designed to compete – at a much lower price point – against cable and satellite packages in this era of “cutting the cord.”…
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Is Google Fiber sputtering? Dropping 8 markets and new television services
Is Google Fiber struggling? The rollout of high speed Gigabit internet has been slower than expected and the company has cut back on the markets where it’s installing. In October, it scrapped plans to expand into 8 markets. It’s been hampered by both the cost and time it takes to…
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Apple ditches Bing for Google search
In 2014, Apple dropped Google for its search and switched to Bing for iOS and Mac. Now, it’s dumping Bing and going back to Google. The same goes for Siri as well. “Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these…
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Dominating Digital Ad Revenue: Google, Facebook, Amazon, and … ?
Amazon has gotten a lot of attention lately for its move into the advertising sales space, but another online retailer is making moves as well. Wal-Mart is now in the advertising business. Both companies have a dizzying array of consumer information in their databases to target consumers. Wal-Mart is positioned…
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How to check if your website violates new Google Chrome “Annoying Ads” filter
Google recently announced its going to penalize websites that have poor ad experiences in its upcoming update to the Chrome browser. Starting next year, Chrome will block sites with “annoying ads” in search results. If you think because you’re a name brand publisher, you’ll be exempt, think again. Google has…
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Facebook to punish slow loading websites
Here’s another reason to make sure your website loads quickly. Facebook will give priority placement to sites that load fast. “…we’ll soon take into account the estimated load time of a webpage that someone clicks to from any link in News Feed on the mobile app. Factors such as the…
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If Programmatic Ad Buying is the future, why are advertisers not buying it?
We’ve heard so much about “Programmatic Ad Buying” in the past two years, it’s almost become a joke around our place. Everybody tells us it’s coming and we’d better be ready. If you’ve ever bought a self-serve Google ad or a Facebook ad, that’s really the kind of thing we…
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FCC signals rollback on net neutrality rules; Nearly 11 million comments filed
Before the Federal Communications Commission takes action, it puts out proposals and asks for public comments. When it comes to net neutrality rules, the public commented big time. Nearly 11 million comments have been filed. There’s no question the issue is a lightning rod. In 2015, the FCC voted in…
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Get early access to Google beta projects
Google techs are expected to spend a portion of their time working on special projects outside their job area. Inside the company, they call it “Area 120.” It’s an incubator for experimental projects well before they are ready for release. Prior Area 120 projects included Google Maps, AdSense, and even…
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Google says no to pop-up and pop-under ads
Google has taken another positive step in trying to help reign in the mess of annoying ads on website. Google will no longer permit placing pop-up or pop-under ads, the company declared in a blog post. They also won’t allow the use of any Google ads on sites that contain…
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News organizations ask Congress for authority to collectively bargain with Google, Facebook
The New Media Alliance represent almost 2,000 news organizations, primarily newspapers. This week, the organization starting asking Congress for some help in taking on the big internet companies. Call it a pre-emptive strike for collective bargaining with Google and Facebook. It’s no secret that Goo-book dominates digital advertising. In the…
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Canada’s Supreme Court rules Google must block some search content worldwide
Can one country really tell Google what it can and can’t show in its search results for the rest of the world? Read on. Canada’s Supreme Court made a startling ruling that has broad-reaching impact around the world. In a 7-2 ruling, the court decided to grant an injunction preventing…
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Gmail will no longer scan your email and target ads
Did you even know that Google was scanning your Gmail messages and then targeted advertising to you based on the contents? They were. Now, Google says they won’t do it anymore. Well, kind of. They’ll still scan and use the info, but just not serve ads.
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Is the advertiser boycott of YouTube over?
Money talks. Most of the advertisers boycotting YouTube are back in the advertising tent, according to Digiday. MediaRadar said General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, AT&T, Verizon, and Walmart have ads running on YouTube right now. Major brands pulled their ads from YouTube after worries about brand security and where their…
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Game Changer: Google confirms built-in ad blocker coming to its Chrome browser
It’s been rumored for a while, but now Google confirms it will update its Chrome browser to include an ad blocker. If your site has what Google terms “unacceptable ads,” it’s going to block all the advertisements on your site. The list of what is unacceptable will include pop-ups, videos…
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Website video might hurt, but won’t help Google ranking
Adding videos to your website may be a great idea, but it won’t help your site rank better on Google. “Having a video on your page will absolutely not help you rank better in web search,” said Google’s Gary Illyes in response to a Twitter discussion. Having a video…
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It’s over: Mobile has won
We passed the tipping point in 2014. Since then, the use of mobile has exploded. If you’re still focusing on your desktop website first, you’re way behind. 71% of web traffic in the United States is mobile, according to ComScore. Mobile usage is larger than desktop in almost every country.…
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The AdWords Illusion: Forget the sales funnel
I’ve written before about the problem with using “last-click attribution” as a key metric for deciding where and how to place your advertising. Who gets credit for driving customers? The last thing they visited. Many marketers are just counting the click and forgetting about all the other marketing it took…
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Ranking in Local Search: Location is the top factor
What’s that saying about real estate? Location, location, location. It appears the same can be said about what it takes to be listed in the local listings on Google. With the big shift to mobile occurring over the past year, it’s no surprise that the biggest signal Google looks for…
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Is Google getting ready to launch its own ad blocker?
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is readying its own ad-blocker as part of its Chrome browser. Chrome is the undisputed most used browser in the world with a market share north of 41%. The ad blocker would be added to both mobile and desktop versions, per the report,…
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Social Media sites under increasing pressure to police themselves – or risk huge fines and prosecution
It’s not just advertisers putting increasing pressure on social networks and platforms that share user-generated content. In Germany, the government is considered legislation that would fine Facebook, Twitter and the like fines of tens of millions of dollars for failing to remove hate speech quickly enough. In the UK,…
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Website hacking on the rise – check out the new things hackers are doing
Google reports an increase in the number of hacked sites. They estimate that there were roughly 32% more hacked sites in 2016 compared to 2015. “We don’t expect this trend to slow down,” Google said in a recent post. “As hackers get more aggressive and more sites become outdated,…
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Should Google & Facebook be regulated, pay license fees for news content?
The British government has officially opened an inquiry into “fake news.” Damian Collins MP, Chair of the Committee investigating, summed it up: “The growing phenomenon of fake news is a threat to democracy and undermines confidence in the media in general.” Now British publishers have responded. The newspaper group News Media…
Paul Dughi.com 