In all fairness, it hasn’t been too busy a week in the world of digital marketing. We had a couple of updates from the search engine king, Google, particularly around improvements to Maps relating to pickup and delivery options.
YouTube and Instagram also had a couple of announcements about some new features.
Still haven’t seen last week’s news?
We had a really big week last week! Google was once again in the spotlight for SEO news, as was social media abuzz with announcements from TikTok and YouTube, as well as Trump set to launch his return to social media.
This week’s news from digital media and more
As usual, Google had a busy week.
A couple of quick updates from them included an announcement to improve Google Maps, particularly around curbside pickup and delivery options. Obviously, the pandemic forced their hand in this regard.
They also announced improvements in indoor-live view navigation (including in airports) and air-quality data as well as eco-friendly driving directions.
The airport live view will allow you to guide yourself through without needing to rely on signs – then again, it feels like it will be a long time before most of us can avail ourselves of this feature … sob, sob.
It will begin to increase these features relating to pick up and delivery in the US with a few stores, and soon will include pickup and delivery windows on mobile Search along with fees and order minimums.
It will soon add these features to Maps. It is currently testing how to include curbside pickup so you can communicate to the shop which parking spot you’re parked in.
Once you place an order for pickup on the store’s app you can then add this to Maps so Google can send you a notification letting you know when to leave.
Then, upon arrival you can just notify the restaurant or store on their app and they will bring it out.
All of this improves people’s ability to do contactless pick-ups.
COOKIES
Google has also rolled out its new ad targeting technology. Its new technology is called Federated Learning of Cohorts and it is meant to be an alternative to cookies which are hyper-personalised.
This new technology will allow Google to group you with other people who have similar web-browsing behaviour and interests for ad-targeting.
It’s being tested in a number of places, but excluding Europe where there are still concerns that the new technology does not comply with privacy regulations.
GOOGLE AND SEO
In the more technical way of things, Martin Splitt from google said that he does not measure title tags by the number of pixels – apparently this was a joke when it was mentioned in their podcast.
YOUTUBE
The video streaming platform is going to run a trial to hide the dislike count on videos from viewers.
They say this is based on creator feedback so only they will be able to see this data.
Instagram will move to introduce advertisements on IGTV so as to direct some of the earnings to content creators.
55% of the revenue from advertisements that appear on their content, so in line with Australian industry standards.
Instagram said it “is part of our broader commitment to building a suite of tools to support creators’ various needs and ambitions, no matter who they are.”
