News Clicks Do Impact Rankings, TikTok-Google Search, Yelp Reviews Survey Ex-Googler: Clicks Affect Rankings Google has always maintained it doesn't use behavioral signals such as clicks or dwell time in search rankings. And it has called such claims "myths." But
News Bard Plug-ins, SMB Marketing Impatience, Just Walk Out Again Bard+ Arrives with Extensions After a couple of months with no updates, yesterday Google rolled out Bard Extensions (similar to ChatGPT plug-ins). Bard extensions were first announced at Google I/
News Local SGE Manic Episode, Inflated Ratings, Apple's Mother Nature Haters Local SGE's Manic Episode Last week SEO Andy Simpson discovered a Local SGE snapshot with two carousel results and a whole lot of thumbnails. The query was "new orleans personal
News Amazon Upgrades Visual Search, LSA Ad Confusion, Data 'Delete Act' Amazon Search Upgrades Answer Google Amazon dominates product search. And Google has been battling back for several years with a range of strategies and tactics: more product results, visual search
News Google Trial, Apple Maps EU Gains, Hey Dude Reviews US: Google 'Weaponized' Search Defaults The US v. Google has kicked off, with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) arguing Google used default search deals as an anti-competitive "weapon" against
News Google on Trial, ROI: FB Beats SEO, Zero-Click Packs Google's Day in Court There have been a dizzying array of antitrust claims against Google in Europe and the US. In the US, Google currently faces two active cases – one
News Yahoo Directory 2.0, Europe's Gatekeepers, Fees Boost BOPIS Does Yahoo Directory 2.0 Make Sense? The venerable Yahoo Directory shut down, after nearly 20 years, in 2014. It was a victim of exploding online content and an ascendant
News ChatGPT ≠ Search, Unread Reviews, Gen Z SearchTok People Not Using ChatGPT to 'Search' When ChatGPT launched it was immediately seen as a "Google killer." However, that has not come to pass. In fact, ChatGPT's traffic, while substantial,
News Naïve SEO Advice, Meh or Malevolent AI, AI for B2B Google's 'Naïve' SEO Advice Google has long promoted the idea that you should create content for people (e.g., Helpful Content Update) and not for its algorithm. The company says
News DSA Kicks In, Social Media Hive Mind, BOPIS 32% Europe's DSA Forcing Change Europe's Digital Services Act (DSA) passed in early 2022; now it's taking effect. A companion to the Digital Markets Act, the DSA is primarily directed toward
News TikTok Search Ads, ChatGPT Most Accurate, No Copyright for AI TikTok 'Search Ads Toggle' After months of testing with an expanding group of advertisers, TikTik has officially rolled out search ads, called "Search Ads Toggle." The "toggle" part refers to
News BingGPT Stalls, TOS (AI) Wars, Robotaxis Not Ready Has BingGPT Failed? When Microsoft announced integration of ChatGPT into Bing this February, the company proclaimed it was "reinventing search." The positive coverage and buzz was a PR coup; it
News SGE While Browsing, Review Cliffs Notes, TV Dethroned SGE While Browsing Earlier this week, Google announced a number of SGE upgrades, including a new feature called "SGE While Browsing." (Bing has something similar.) To access SGE While Browsing
News AI Review Summaries, E-commerce $1T, AI Adoption AI Summaries the Future of Reviews? E-commerce site Newegg introduced AI-generated review summaries (h/t SEL). And Amazon is doing something similar. Newegg is using ChatGPT to extract highlights from
News Google Trial, SMB AI Hopes, Yelp's Ad Revs Up Google's Antitrust Trial Set Earlier this week, a California judge denied Google's summary judgment motion in the $5 billion Chrome "incognito" browser tracking lawsuit. This doesn't mean Google will be
News ChatGPT Beats Google, Maps Distrust, Local Inventory Demand ChatGPT Beats Google in Blind Test In blind testing, users appear to prefer ChatGPT search results over Google by almost 2:1. Those are the findings of the test's creator,
Analysis Overture Drops Free Global Dataset with 60M Places The Overture Maps Foundation released its first global open map dataset. The data covers nearly 60 million places worldwide. It also includes transportation data, 780 million buildings and administrative boundaries
News Google SGE Links, Shrinking Ad Labels, Meta Consent Finally, Links in Google SGE Perhaps the loudest criticism of Google SGE has been its failure to cite sources for content that appears in the "AI Snapshot." (Links exist for
News Meta Makeover, AI Takeout, Algorithms at Risk Meta's Image Makeover Meta is back. Not long ago, the company was reeling from Apple's privacy changes, a bad bet on the metaverse, the rise of TikTok and constant, negative
News GOOGL, MSFT Beat Xpectations, Twitter –>X, SMB Astroturfing Google Search Ads Up, Bing's Billion Chats Google and Microsoft announced quarterly earnings yesterday and both beat Wall Street expectations. With $74.6 billion in total revenue, Google stock rose,
News Social Product Search, ChatGPT 4 Winning, Brand New World Product Search Shifting Driven by Prime loyalty, Amazon has been the dominant product search site for most consumers, followed by Google. While that remains true, there's some interesting movement according
News Now AppleGPT, Pay by Palm, Soft Landing Ahead? Can AI Save Siri? According to a Bloomberg report, Apple has been working on its own generative AI to catch up ro everybody else. Known internally as "Ajax," the article
News Apple Maps Momentum, Google Threads AI Needle, Location Sharing Apple Maps Momentum Last week we discussed the growth of Apple Maps and estimated its iPhone user market share at 37% (others have larger estimates). This week a number of
News Fast Cheap Content, Threads Cools Down, Prime Day Record Fast, Cheap Content For months we've been debating the impact of generative AI on search. Some marketers argue AI will "revolutionize the SERPs." That's true – it's already in process on
News Bing Is #4, State of Digital Agencies, AI and Copyright Local: Bing in Fourth Place Monday we published a preliminary analysis of Apple Maps traffic vs. Google for local search/discovery. Mike's conclusion was that roughly 37% of iPhone owners
News Google AI Theater, Twitter's Karma, Blasé Prime Day Google SGE Usage Decline? When Google SGE launched I was super excited (as they say) because I believe that the SERP is broken. But now I mostly don't use it
News Cage Match: Twitter vs. Threads, PeakGPT, Local News Survival Cage Match: Twitter vs. Threads By now you've read about or signed up for Threads, Meta's Twitter clone. Threads officially launched yesterday in 100 countries, though not Europe. Within 24
News Meta GDPR'd, Yahoo's IPO, Another 'Twitter Killer' GDPR Gets Some Teeth Meta (née Facebook) built its ad model on massive, largely surreptitious data collection, which fueled highly personalized ad targeting. That capability and model are now in
News New Fake Reviews Rule, Google News Blackout, MrBeast Burger Flameout FTC's New Fake Reviews Rule The FTC has been refining its fake review policy, as part of its endorsement guidelines and forthcoming rules. The guidelines indicate what types of review
News Google Perspectives, Amazon Last Mile, Content Moderation Collision Perspectives on Google's Struggle Google has been battling the perception its SERP quality is in decline, filled with ads and "SEO chum." Google's Helpful Content Update, E-E-A-T standards and AI
Analysis When Is the Right Time to Ask for Customer Reviews? The best time to ask for reviews isn't the next day; it may be more than a week after the transaction according to new research.
News Cost of Fake Reviews, PPC Costs Up, Internet Remorse Cost of Fake Reviews: $24B In its blog post announcing litigation against alleged review fraudster Ethan Hu, Google cited an FTC report stating consumers wasted "$125 on average each year
News Facebook Blew Waze, Prime Dark Patterns, GBP Category Boost How Facebook F'd Up Waze Deal Roughly a decade has passed since Google bought Waze for more than $1 billion. Waze co-founder Noam Bardin tells the fascinating story of what
News TikTok Review Bombing, Google Whack-a-Mole, EU Acts on AI Teen TikTok Inspires 1-Star Barrage Marketing today can be a complex and volatile proposition for local business owners. A case-in-point involves a nail salon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that is reportedly
News Google AI Dump, SGE Pack, SMBs Satisfied with AI Google AI Feature Dump Google this week released a barrage of AI-driven updates to Search, Shopping and Maps. The company started by reiterating all the things you can do with
News Amazon Review Summaries, AI (Not?) a Threat to Google, Top o' the Funnel Fake Review Summaries Amazon may be in denial about how counterfeiting and review fraud are long-term threats to its brand. According to a recent US-UK consumer survey, 84% of shoppers
News Link Power of Local, Therapy Bots, Labeling AI Content Study: Localized Stories Drive Links Most content marketers publish studies and data for the purpose of lead-generation, press coverage or both. Often they use PR pros to target publications with
News Apple's Future Vision, Ratings Inflation, SMB SaaS Sprawl Vision Pro 'Feels Like the Future' Whether or not Apple's Vision Pro actually sells next year or is succeeded by more affordable headsets, it appears Apple has indeed sown the
Analysis Apple Vision Pro: Technical Marvel with WTF Pricing Apple unveiled its long-awaited XR headset today. It's technically impressive but faces an uphill climb to mainstream success.
News No SGE SERPs, Apple Business Disconnect, Glorious XR Failure No AI for 70% of Google Queries? Google's SGE has three or four modes: auto-generated AI Snapshots, "manual" AI (push to "Generate"), an AI "is not available for this search"
News Social Beating SEO, LawyerGPT, SMBs and AI Social Beating SEO for B2B The top B2B marketing challenges, according to a new US-based survey (form) from WPromote and Ascend2, are: 1) improving CX, 2) proving digital marketing ROI,
Analysis Google SGE: Meet the New Pack SGE is arguably the single biggest change to the Google SERP in over 20 years. But will it stick?
News SGE Local Pack, Bard Pix, TikTok Local Reviews SGE: The New Local Pack Google opened the gates to its AI Search Generative Experience (SGE). There's much to say and we'll provide more analysis soon. Here are some quick
News Google Ads: AI Everywhere, Local Invisibility, Yelp + ANGI? Google Ads: AI Everywhere All at Once The subtext of Google I/O was about convincing investors the company wasn't going to be bested by AI competitors. Search-related announcements focused
News Neeva Search Done, AI Content Discovery, Here's Twittergram Was Neeva Doomed from the Start? Neeva is shutting down its search engine. The news came out this weekend in an email and blog post from founders Sridhar Ramaswamy and
News LocalGPT Weak, SCOTUS Punts, Diversify Traffic Now LocalGPT Is No Google Killer Earlier this week I gained access to ChatGPT beta features web browsing and plug-ins. Plug-ins are like Chrome extensions and bring their full datasets (presumably)
News Peek-a-Boo Pack, Altman Testifies, Metaverse RIP? Disappearing Local Pack Appearances of the Local Pack again seem to be in decline. We've written about this in the past but local SEOs continue to raise the issue. Joy
News Review Trust Crisis, Stores Drive Online Sales, Yelp Reserves with Google 84% Wary of Amazon Reviews There's an unacknowledged trust crisis online and one manifestation is fake reviews. We've been tracking growing skepticism about reviews, which is reinforced in a recent
News New Twitter CEO, Google Perspectives, SMB SEO New Twitter CEO Is a 'WEF' Twitter's new CEO is Linda Yaccarino. Until this week, she was chair of global advertising at NBCU. She appears to be a highly regarded
Analysis Google's Bipolar Search Vision: Bard vs. SGE Google appears to be hedging with an AI-enhanced Google.com and an upgraded version of Bard simultaneously.
News Dogpile for AI, Amazon Inspire Anywhere, TikTok Search Widget Where's 'Dogpile for AI'? Remember "metasearch" from the late '90s? Sites like Dogpile and Metacrawler displayed results for the same query from multiple search engines, typically side-by-side. The pitch to
News Snackable SERPs, Map Revolution, AI Content Flood Google's 'Snackable' Magi Google's I/O developer conference starts Wednesday. It will be chock-a-block with AI-related announcements. Among them, it's anticipated that Google will reveal "Magi," its search-chat integration. According
News Bing Beating Google, AI-SEO Future, Best Assistant Bing Beating Google Never mind the fact that Bing's revival is entirely based on third party technology, Microsoft is now out-innovating Google in search. And while Bing has less to
News AI Jobs Impact, Spamgraders, Nextdoor Assistant AI's Impact on Jobs A week ago Box CEO Drew Houston announced the company was laying off 500 employees as it frees up headcount for AI hires. This was the
News Content Farms 2.0, Location Clicks, Automated CS Content Farms: The Next Generation NewsGuard, a site that rates the credibility of information websites, found a range of publications (49) in multiple languages producing content "entirely or mostly generated
News Dark Social Traffic, SMBs Lack Content Strategy, AMZN Ad Revs +21% Social Traffic Mislabeled "Direct" A new study by SparkToro concludes that a considerable percentage of website traffic coming from social media sites is often mischaracterized as "direct" in Google Analytics.
News Google Ads Flatish, Yelp Guaranteed, AI Election Search + AI Drive Google, MSFT Earnings Both Google and Microsoft reported positive earnings yesterday. Microsoft beat expectations with ~$53B, while Google posted $69.8B in total revenue. For Microsoft, overall
News Amazon AI Reviews, Image Heavy, Copyright & Consent Amazon F(ai)ke Reviews One of the primary use cases for Amazon has been product reviews. This is well established by consumer surveys. And reviews are obviously a major
News GBP Peak SMB, One-Click Ads, Privacy Permission Slip Peak SMB for GBP? Like other large tech companies publishing "economic impact" reports, Google's is mostly PR. Published annually since 2009, it argues the company's activity and services "helped provide
News SanFranciscoGPT, IBA vs. Contextual, Twitter Survival SanFranciscoGPT At Near Media, we don't equally agree on how disruptive AI will be to local search. I'm probably the most bullish of the three of us on GPT-style interfaces
News Google Magi, AI Regulation, AI-Curious Consumers 'Panicked' Google Readies Magi By now you've read or read coverage of the NY Times article yesterday that says Google is "panicking" over AI and its potential impact on the
News Local Pack Intent Gap, Slowing Search Spend, Review Star Chasm Google Throttling Local Packs? What's happening with the Local Pack? Last year, Moz and LocalSEOGuide noticed a drop Local Pack frequency, from 40% and 42% of SERPs to 24% and
News Bargle SEO, SaiS for SMBs, GPT Liability Bargle Uses Yelp for Local Results Miriam Ellis at Moz compares local results from Google and Bard and finds Bard wanting. Beyond critiquing the quality of results, her article is
News Post-Cookie Manifesto, Legal AI, CX and Location Google's Post-Cookie Manifesto Victor Wong is sincere when he says that Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative is trying to solve the cookie problem for publishers, consumers and advertisers. The founder of
News Just Bargle It, PSAs & LSAs, Twitter Blue 'Ads' Just Bargle It Google + Bard = Bargle. Google will be integrating Bard into the SERP. That's according to an interview of CEO Sundar Pichai in the WSJ, part of his media
News Search Movement, Viral PR and SEO, Amazon Theaters Search Movement Afoot There's some evidence that Bing has grown usage modestly since the introduction of BingGPT. However its share vs. Google appears largely unchanged according to other data. I
News Google Assistant Merger, GM Boots CarPlay, BloombergGPT Bard, Google Assistant to Merge Google's tentative rollout of Bard hurt the perception of Google's technology leadership. So CEO Sundar Pichai is now doing PR interviews. He spoke recently to
News Fake Review Growth, AI Darkside, 'Kiss of Death' Google: 20% More Fake Reviews in 2022 Earlier this week we discussed how review attacks are becoming more creative. Jason Brown is documenting many of these cases, including how hotels
News 5-Star Attack, Data Privacy Paradox, AI Eschatology Fake Positive Review Attacks? Ever heard of a "5-star review attack"? A hostile party posts obviously fake 5-star reviews -- in order to make a business look bad? Seems counter-intuitive
News New GBP Ads, Chat Apps vs Search, GenZ Product Search Google 'Online Conversion Local Ads' Michel Van Luijtelaar of GMBapi.com brought our attention to what he/Google is calling "online-conversion Local Ads." These units can appear in a few
Analysis Local Search Ranking Factors for 2023 Every 12 months the survey offers an invaluable crash course in local SEO best practices.
News Local Ranking Factors '23, TikTok: Stupid Congress, Neighborhood Studios Local Ranking Factors 2023 Whitespark just published the 2023 version of the Local Search Ranking Factors study (LSRF). There's a lot there to digest. We'll discuss further in a separate
News AI Everywhere, Bard v. BingGPT, Bard Local OK AI Everywhere All at Once Microsoft is all-in on AI. Seemingly, it's everywhere, all at once. This week Adobe introduced Firefly, a set of generative AI tools for its creative
News Whither Local Pack, Made with AI, E-Commerce Ceiling Whither the Local Pack? After the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) passed a year ago, we began to speculate about the impact it could have on Google local results. Among
News TikTok Ban, BaT: Trust = Success, CX Degrades TikTok Ban: What Happens Now? Roughly two years of negotiations between the US government and TikTok have come to an impasse. The US is (again) demanding divestiture but China is
News GPT-4 Arrives, Google AIs Workspace, Meta Seeks Old Magic ChatGPT-4 Est Arrivé Yesterday OpenAI released ChatGPT-4, which represents a leap ahead compared to version 3.5. It's multimodal, meaning it can understand and produce images and video as well
News GoWalla Comeback, AI Ambivelance, Digital Twins GoWalla Take Two Local social networking (or social cityguide) app GoWalla is back. GoWalla was originally Foursquare's primary competitor. Both launched in 2009. Foursquare survives today, albeit in very different
News Bing's 100M, TikTok Search Ads, Where's Local TikTok? MSFT: BingGPT Is Working It's been roughly a month since the introduction of BingGPT. And this week Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi announced that the search engine had reached 100 million daily
News Her Is (Really) Here, LSA's 70 Categories, Nextdoor's New SMB Tools Her Is Here An Israeli start-up Chat.D-ID has combined ChatGPT with an AI avatar that you can actually talk to and who will talk back. Pictured below, it is
News Jeeves, Gist & Phind, Amazon Stores Going Away, Don't Call It 'Phygital' Ask Jeeves, Gist & Phind The "conversational search" model embodied by Ask Jeeves in its early days may represent the future of search/discovery. Rather than indexing documents, Ask Jeeves saw
News Reputation Evolution, Web 3 Now AI, Badge of Shame How AI Changes Local Listings & Rep Management Every major listings and reputation management company is now adding or will add AI capabilities. At the risk of leaving someone out, SOCi,
News GPT Won't Kill G, Assistants 2.0, National Data Privacy BingGPT Not a 'Google Killer' You've seen the conjecture that ChatGPT will render Google obsolete within two years. After finally gaining access and testing out BingGPT, I'm confident that prediction
News ChatGPT Survey, Email Rules, SMB Video AI Dream ChatGPT: They Like Me! There's been an abundance of "insider" debate about ChatGPT. But what do consumers think? The first survey we've seen comes from Kevin Indig and Appinio (n=
News Moving Beyond Search, AI Copyright, 4-Day Week Beyond Search Engines User behavior is changing. Here are three macro-trends: 1) AI-assisted discovery, 2) searching beyond search, 3) shifting social media engagement. As we all know, AI is potentially
News AppleGPT, WTF SCOTUS, Services Locally Rank Why Apple Holds Back in Search Most of the discussion this past week in search has again been about BingGPT, its alter-ego Syndey and how Microsoft is trying to minimize
News Google Bard + 230, Crazy Sydney, Metaverse Meh Will GPT-Search Get Sued? We've written before about the upcoming SCOTUS case Gonzalez v. Google. The central question is whether algorithmic recommendations are entitled to protection under Section 230 of
News Shiny GPT, Paid-Search Comeback, Amazon to 'Go Big' on Stores GPT: Shiny Object Syndrome Exactly one week ago was Google's Paris event, followed by a $100 billion investor sell-off. That was attributed to a factual error in Google's Bard demo.
News Super Ads, AI Search Game Over, AI-Review Responses Do Super Bowl Ads Matter? It was a great game, but what about the ads? This year they cost ~$7 million for 30 seconds. Do they deliver value? That's the
News BingGPT Anyone?, AI Is A-OK, G-Maps ARevolution BingGPT: Will People Care? The BingGPT vs. Google Bard story is everywhere. I understand why; it's the first really exciting thing to happen in search for a long time and
News Google in Paris, BingGPT, SMB Recession Angst Google Underwhelms in Paris Google is arguably the most powerful AI company in the world. However that wasn't really on display in today's "Live from Paris" event that was intended
News Google Bard, Yelp Moderation, Rise of 'De-Influencers' Google Teases Bard This Wednesday in Paris, Google will preview its answer to ChatGPT (Bard) at an event entitled "Search, Maps and Beyond." In many ways this has been forced
News AI & Fake Reviews, Local Online Inventory, Reduced Expectations AI-Generated (Fake) Reviews TripAdvisor's top-rated restaurant in Montreal doesn't actually exist. Its creation was a prank by a Canadian comedian to prove that review platforms don't effectively police their content.
News Search Mountain, AI and CS, Hearts vs. Wallets Online Yahoo Ready to Climb 'Search Mountain' Yahoo really is going to reinvest in search. The company has been teasing this on Twitter over the past couple of weeks. In honor
News Yandex & Google, Platform 'Enshittification,' Nice-to-Have Economy Yandex & Google Ranking Factors Since Russian search engine Yandex's ranking algorithm was "leaked" or hacked last week, SEOs have been pouring over it for insights about Google's algorithm. Yandex's was
News Tik and Mortar, Local Ad Subsidy, Worker (Dis)Engagement Subsidize Local Ads to Save News A new coalition of groups called Rebuild Local News has proposed a dramatic tax-based solution to the problem of collapsing local journalism, which is
News DOJ v. Google, Get Down with OPC, Yahoo Search Comeback? DOJ: Break Up Google Ad Manager The US Justice Department (DOJ) has now filed two antitrust lawsuits against Google. The first, in 2020, covers search and paid search. That will
News Google Store Inventory, AI Perplexity, Were Layoffs Necessary? Google's AI Store Inventory Google recently announced several new AI-based tools for retailers. Some are focused on e-commerce, offering improved personalization and recommendations for retailer websites. More interesting for our
News AI for SMBs, Tech Regs Take 2, SMBs Up for 2023 Will AI Deliver for SMBs? While there's been considerable discussion about how AI will revolutionize digital marketing for brands and agencies, I haven't seen much on how AI might be
News AI Caution, Local SEO a 'Fad', Technical SEO Neglect AI Content: Proceed with Caution AI is the industry's shiny new object, which has undeniable momentum. Google's DeepMind appears poised to introduce a ChatGPT competitor. One of its differentiators will
News Algorithm's End, AI Content Tsunami, SMBs: No MSPs The Death of Recommendations? Most people aren't following the forthcoming SCOTUS case Gonzalez v. Google. Arguments will be heard in February. To recap the facts: US citizen Nohemi Gonzalez was
News Apple My Business, Google LSA Exposure, Her Is Here Apple Means Business Connect Don't call it "Apple My Business." Today the company announced Apple Business Connect (not Apple Maps Connect). Not unlike GBP, it's a tool that enables SMBs
News Apple Glass, SMB TikTok ROI, AI-Content 'Dilution' Apple XR Headset the New Google Glass? Following CES, there are reports that Apple will announce its long-awaited mixed-reality headset at the WWDC conference this year. The company is reportedly
News AI Search Snippets, Yelp Effect, E-commerce 22% Search: AI-Results a Giant Snippet Neeva and You.com have started showing AI-generated results in their SERPs. This follows news that Microsoft is planning to add AI-chat to Bing to
News BingGPT, Facebook Model Goes Boom, SMB Journey Can Bing Beat Google with AI Chat? There's already been enormous coverage and speculation about the potential impact of AI chat on search and Google in particular. You may have
News Musk Out?, Marketers AI Wary, SMBs Want TikTok Musk Looking for Way Out To say that Elon Musk's short tenure as Twitter CEO has been disastrous is an understatement. We could recount the "parade of horribles" but you
News G-Maps Foe, Age and Reviews, Agencies Upbeat Despite Market Anti-Google Maps Coalition Amazon (AWS), Meta, Microsoft and TomTom have joined forces with The Linux Foundation to form the Overture Maps Foundation. The project is very similar in principle to
News Local Guide Reviews, Baroque SERP, Bot vs. Bot Local Guide Reviews Favored Sterling Sky recently published a case study examining the impact of different review features and characteristics on what we might call "review longevity" – how long a
News Google Dilemma, Meta Model 'Dead', §230 Change Ahead ChatGPT: Google's 'Innovator's Dilemma' ChatGPT explainer videos are all over TikTok. And this morning, ChatGPT servers were crashing under the weight of all the curious lookie-loos. There are two main
News AI Content Threat, Amazon Inspire, Yelp's New Projects AI Content Threat to Google Looking back, 2022 will be remembered as a breakthrough year for AI. Between AI-image generators such as DALL-E and Lensa and ChatGPT, marketers and the
News Google 'Worse' Debate, Local Pack Future, Amazon Pay to Track Google 'Getting Worse' – Again Months ago a popular discussion topic was: Google ain't what it used to be. The Freakonomics radio show last week revisited the issue of search results
News ChatGPT and Local, Amazon Style RIP, TikTok v. TV ChatGPT and Local Search Like a lot of people, I've been playing with OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. It's "early days" and it makes plenty of mistakes, but the tool is still
News More Reviews, Google CPL +19%, Empathy v. Autocracy Users Want Review Transparency The state of reviews is fraught. Reviews remain highly influential but consumers are more skeptical and generating fewer of them now. In addition, Google is using
News Link Buying Redux, Online vs. Stores, SCOTUS Chaos Due to a technical issue, many subscribers did not receive our newsletter yesterday. Apologies if this is a duplicate in your inbox. Survey: 74% Buying Links A recent survey of
News Cyber Spending, Alexa Failed, More Calls Please Cyber Weekend Boom Going into "cyber weekend" retail prognosticators were unsure whether consumers would open their wallets. But according to Adobe data, online sales were up between 2% and 3%
News Shopify Shop, SMB Saturday Help, Toxic Bros vs. the Gatekeepers We will be taking the remainder of the week off for the US Thanksgiving holiday. Amid the problems and challenges we all face, there's still a lot to be grateful
News Google Local AR, Review Trust High, 'Rank & Yank' Google 'Search On' Features Roll Out Google is now introducing the many visual search, shopping and Maps features announced in September at its Search On event. Among them are Google's
News Shopping Roulette, Content Success, SMBs Shrink Holiday: Big Retailers Sweat, SMBs Cocky Holiday shopping this year is shaping up to be pretty unpredictable. Driven by early promotions, data show many consumers have already started, which could
News Google Pays $392M, Facebook Kills Portal, Apple Search Future Google's $392M Location Privacy Settlement Google has agreed to pay almost $400 million to settle a location-tracking lawsuit brought by 40 state attorneys general. Being called "the largest attorney general-led
News Peak Reviews, Apple's Ads Biz, Car As Computer Local Reviews Have Peaked This week I received a review-solicitation from Tripadvisor. It asked me to write reviews, not review a specific businesses. The headline was "one review does a
News Local Packs 36%, MLBs Fall Short, TomTom's New Map Local Packs: 36.2% of Queries Local Packs aren't exactly disappearing but they're not showing up as often either. A week ago a number of reports from Moz, Rank Ranger
News AirBnBrand, Google Review Location, Antitrust Wildcard AirBnB: Brand Not SEM Most internet companies pay lip service to brand building but continue to favor short-term performance marketing. That typically means paid-search and paid social. AirBnB offers an
News TikTok SMBs, Retail Automation and CX, Twitter Opportunity TikTok's SMB Opportunity TikTok is getting more local. Beyond isolated but dramatic SMB success stories (e.g., Nerdy Nuts) or experimental features (e.g., TikTok Nearby), I'm seeing more local
News Backward Search, Fake Review Distrust, Google Budget Shopping Rewind: A 'Backward' Search Engine Inspired by founder Dan Siroker's experiences with hearing loss, Rewind is a new Mac OS search engine that captures every piece of content on your
News Twitter Purge, Local News Decline, SMB Profiles Twitter Purge Begins If you're still on Twitter, you probably fall into one of three camps: the boosters, the haters or those who want to wait and see. But "Chief
News Missing Local Packs, Correction or Shakeout, Twitter 'Hellscape' Google Local Pack Decline There's evidence that Google is reducing the frequency of Local Packs. Barry Schwartz has compiled data from Moz, Rank Ranger and Semrush that show a decline
News Zero-Click Revision, YouTube Drop, Twitter Wipeout? Study: Zero-Clicks Only 25% A much-cited, 2020 study from Rand Fishkin's SparkToro and SimilarWeb argued that 65% of searches on Google were "zero-click." In other words, two-thirds of queries didn't
News In-Store Boom, Waning Review Influence, Shopify Store Churn More In-Store Shopping than Pre-COVID Despite hand-wringing over inflation, consumer spending has remained relatively strong. We'll have to see how that plays out during holiday shopping. But retailers are leaving
News Google MAC, TikTok Location, Retail's Local Whiff Google MAC Rollout Announced this year at Google I/O, My Ad Center (MAC) is starting to roll out. The new controls will give users the ability to influence ads
News Meta-Giphy Split, Last Mile Fail, SMBs Favor Social Meta Forced to Divest Giphy Facebook parent Meta said yesterday that it would sell Giphy. This is the first time Meta has been forced to divest a completed acquisition and
News New Review Rules, AI Attribution, Prime Day Postmortem Fake Reviews: New Rules Coming The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been focusing more energy and resources on online review and endorsement fraud. Early this year the agency killed review
News Google Ad-Favicons, TikTok World, Enterprise Holograms vs. Metaverse Google's New Ad-Favicons Google is seeking to boost brand visibility in mobile search ads. Provided marketers qualify, the business name and logo will be shown on the ad by default,
News Meta's Big Vision, H-Commerce, Privacy Not for Sale Meta Wants to Own the Next Platform Meta held its now annual VR event yesterday, featuring the announcement of a $1,500 Meta Quest Pro mixed-reality headset. It's reportedly a
News AI Super App, Facebook Is MySpace, B2B Tech Stack Complexity AI Assistant Super App If the Twitter deal happens, Elon Musk suggested he wants to turn it into an "everything app" or "super app" à la WeChat. That's a bold
News Google: No Gating, Content Tsunami, Pixel Watch Arrives Google: Review Gating Verboten Google recently updated its review content guidelines to clarify the following are disallowed: "Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers." This
News Musk's Pandora's Box, WFH Driving SMB Location, Google's 'LPA' Problem Twitter Moderation Headache So Elon Musk is buying Twitter after all. One theory holds that Musk thought he would lose at trial. Assuming the deal actually happens, Musk will inherent
News Google > TikTok, Waiting for VR, Holographic Video Gen Z: Google > TikTok Much in the same way that Google's fixation and fear of Facebook resulted in the ill-fated Google+, Google now seems to be similarly focused on TikTok
News Peak Reviews, Google Product Search, AI's Impact Have We Reached 'Peak Reviews'? Consumer reviews are a major local ranking factor, with intense industry focus on review management. At the same time we may have reached a turning
News Google's Local Lens, SMB SaaS Quest, Coming Speechpocalypse Google: 'Age of Visual Search' Is Here Google just concluded its "Search On" event, showcasing search innovations. It was mostly a review or update of things previously presented at Google
News Instacart v. Amazon, Social Distrust, Tech 'Productivity Paranoia' Instacart Goes After Amazon As consumers returned to grocery stores and restaurants, delivery companies have scrambled for continued revenue growth. Instacart has very imaginatively sought to transform itself into an
News Google Surveys RIP, Nextdoor Local News, Dark Patterns Abound Google Kills 'Consumer Surveys' Google is in cost-cutting mode. The company will stop making laptops and discontinued half its "Area 120" projects. And just yesterday it notified Google Consumer Surveys
News Paid Search Rules, Speech Bomb, BOPIS to Suffer Paid Search Doubles in Three Years Almost since its inception, paid search marketing has been the leading category of digital advertising. It has maintained that position even as other formats
News Local Innovation, Social Commerce Grows, SMBs Struggle to Hire Where's the (Local) Innovation? A few years ago I wrote an article entitled "Why is there so little innovation in local?" It decried the lack of interesting new local consumer
News Apple and Andi Search, Google Legal Woes, FTC Shame Game Search: Apple and Andi This week Apple finally released iOS 16. Among other changes and upgrades, Apple put its search box on the iPhone's homescreen. Before Apple's June developer conference
News Instacart Is Toast, Amazon Ads Beat Google, Maps Metaverse Instacart's Platform Strategy Food Delivery services may be holding their own but they face intensifying pressures from investors, labor shortages, weakening consumer demand and regulatory scrutiny. Diversification and expansion are
News Apple Ad Gains, Eating Out Is In, Section 230 Reform Apple Ads Gain on 'Triopoly' The big Apple news this week surrounds its new devices. But an equally important story is Apple's ad business. Apple's opt-in ATT launched in Q1
News Yahoo Comeback?, Review Crisis, Freelancers = 36% Is a Yahoo Comeback Possible? This week Yahoo acquired a company called The Factual. It's essentially a news-ranking algorithm that rates the credibility of sources. In my brief experience with
News Google Quick Reads, Facebook Local Failures, Local News Bots We will not publish on Monday in honor of the US Labor Day holiday. We'll be back next Wednesday. Enjoy the weekend. Google 'Quick Read' Label – Why? Earlier this week
News FTC Sues Two, Local Inventory Gains, AI Content Here to Stay Kochava, Roomster Targeted by FTC Reflecting a massive shift in attitudes toward data collection, Oracle was sued last week over its ID Graph with non-consensual profiles of "hundreds of millions
News Google's DOOH, Vouch Vault, Mobile Villains Google Takes Digital Ads 'Offline' Many years ago Google aspired to be a unified platform for all forms of advertising – digital and traditional, including radio and TV. To that end,
News Nextdoor Utility, SMB Paper Chase, CCPA's New Teeth Nextdoor Needs to Become More 'Useful' This past week Nextdoor announced the outcome of its 2022 "Neighborhood Favorites" contest. The winners, who receive badges on their profiles and $500 in
News TikTok Near Me, Zero-Party Reviews, Privacy vs. Personalization TikTok Testing 'Nearby' Feed TikTok confirmed it's testing a new "Nearby" feed (in Asia), intended to showcase locally relevant content to users. Another feature reportedly being tested would allow content
News Google's HCU Impact, TikTokification, ID Graph Class Action Google's HCU to Make Landfall Last week Google announced it would be rolling out a Panda-like algorithm update rewarding "content made by, and for, people." It's designed to respond to
News Google 'People First' Content, Apple Pay's 75%, E-Commerce Joy Declines Google to Punish 'SEO-first' Content Most B2B content today is for lead-gen purposes or designed to rank. So many B2B SERPs are a wasteland of thin content, pitches and listicles
News Inventory = Local Visibility, Yelp Selling Data, 74% of Shoes Sold Online Product Inventory = Local Visibility At one time, there were multiple startups chasing real-time product inventory. The methodologies were varied but almost all of them are now gone, just as Google
News Apple Maps Ads, SMB Churn Myths, 1A vs. Privacy Ads Coming to Apple Maps More ads are coming to your iPhone. That's according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple's ad revenue is nearly $4 billion today and the company wants
News TikTok & BlenderBot, FTC Privacy Rules, Teens Flee Facebook TikTok, BlenderBot and Search TikTok isn't going to replace Google. But among Gen Z users, it does appear to be gaining traction as a search alternative in selected categories (restaurants,
News Nextdoor Woes, Facebook B2B Segments, Google's New Suit Nextdoor: Daily Users ~19 Million Nextdoor posted Q2 revenue yesterday of $55M, representing 19% year-over-year revenue growth. This was generally considered a slight miss. The company also lowered its full-year
News Axios Local, Amazon Indoor Maps, GEICO Not 'Near Me' Cox Buys Axios for Local News Axios, the digital news site delivering journalism via bulleted lists has sold itself to Cox Enterprises for $525 million. Axios' 2022 revenues are projected
News Twitter Location Spotlight, B2B Voice, Missed Social CX Twitter 'Location Spotlight' Rolls Out Last April Twitter launched what amounts to a GMB/GBP profile on its platform for selected businesses with physical locations. Called "Location Spotlight," it's now
News Brand Beats, LSA Spam Deets, Mobile-Desktop Divergence Brand Beats Performance Marketing Whether or not we're in a recession, many marketers are acting like it. Tech companies are laying people off and marketing budgets are tightening. However, a
News Location Data RIP?, TikTok v. Google (Again), Creepy Connected Cars The End of 'Location Intelligence'? The era of precise mobile-location data, which spawned numerous "location intelligence" vendors (e.g., Foursquare) may be coming to a close. For the past decade
News AAPL AMZN Defy Gravity, Cookies 2024, Meta Mess Apple and Amazon Defy Gravity After two quarters of negative growth the US may be in a recession, although that's disputed. Whether or not it's technically so, tech companies are
Not Mega Millions ... But We still need to hear from a few of you. This is our final push for the UpCity-Near Media digital agency survey. Take The Survey It takes about 15 minutes
News Digital ≠ E-commerce, 77% Local Packs, B2B: Social Beats Search Earnings: Digital vs. E-Commerce Snap, Twitter, Microsoft and Google revenues have all disappointed Wall Street recently. (Meta reports today, Apple tomorrow.) Yesterday, Google missed on both the top and bottom
News Google LSA Spam, Catalog Comeback, Delivery Apps LSAs, 'Verified Reviews' and Liability A week ago Robin Dirksen discovered that Google was testing a "not verified" label for local reviews (see below). I assumed it was a "CYA"
News Facebook's Two Feeds, Amazon Healthcare Buy, SMB Vital Signs Facebook Splits the Baby Facebook has broken its Feed in two. There will now be Home and Feeds tabs in the app. Feeds will feature "recent posts from your friends,
News Fake Reviews Action, Instagram #LocalSearch, Opt-In/Out Battle Some Action on Fake Reviews Facebook groups are among the major sources of fake reviews across the internet. However, the company has shown little interest in shutting down the fraud
Survey: We Need Your Input Response rates have been strong for the UpCity-Near Media digital agency survey. Now we're making another push to get across the finish line. We just need a few more responses.
News TikTok Search, Amazon's Meh Style, AI Audiences 'TikTok Is My Search Engine' Last week's story about 40% of younger users abandoning Google Maps/Local for social media (triggered by a TechCrunch report) continues to intrigue, with Insider
News Prime Day Results, Google #19, Las Vegas SERP Amazon: Prime Day 'Biggest Ever' In the weeks before Prime Day there was speculation that this year's event would disappoint. Amazon has now put out a press release saying instead
News Zoomers: No Maps, Dash Cart, Location Data Abuse Google: 40% of Zoomers Shun Search, Maps Speaking at a recent conference, Google SVP Prabhakar Raghavan made a casual remark. "In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people,
Take Our Agency Survey Near Media and UpCity have partnered on a new digital agency survey. It takes about 10 minutes to complete and explores a range of topics, including: * Most impactful channels for
News WTF Twitter, Small Bookstores, Hidden Keywords What Will Happen to Twitter Now? Back in April, a lifetime ago, Elon Musk made his shock $44 billion offer for Twitter. He filed it formally on April 13. In
News Review Extortion, Algorithm Blues, Spend More for ROI Review Extortion, Libel & Liability Review fraud is illegal and it's flourishing. Despite rising awareness of fake reviews, usage is up. An undisputed ranking signal, reviews are also a top conversion
News Google Location Privacy, EU Antitrust Win, Shopify Brand Google to Auto-Delete Location We keep writing about privacy because it's an issue that isn't going away and only becoming more important in the wake of the disastrous SCOTUS Dobbs
News CarPlay Commerce, Local Review Carousel, SMB TikTok Excitement In observance of the US July 4th holiday we will not publish on Monday. We'll be back next Wednesday. Apple's Local Car Play Apple will soon enable users to buy
News Ready Heads to Pinterest, Amazon Store Analytics, 100% Data Opt-in Google's Commerce Boss Heads to Pinterest Pinterest's co-founder and CEO, Ben Silbermann, is stepping down and will become executive chairman. Google Commerce boss Bill Ready will take over the reins
Analysis Digital Agencies Form Coalition to Support Reproductive Rights Doing the right thing is also good business.
News Dobbs Privacy Headache, ROI Decline, Voice Advances Dobbs Creates Personal-Data Minefield Following the demise of Roe, many companies announced they would pay for abortion-related employee travel: Apple, Google, Facebook, Salesforce, Yelp, Dicks Sporting Goods, Neflix and others.
News Post-Roe Privacy, Page Speed = Revenue, Quiet AR Revolution Post-Roe: Data Privacy Now More Urgent Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, data privacy becomes even more urgent for millions of women. Multiple states, perhaps even a majority,
News Google SEO Chum, Local Inventory Search, Open Metaverse Google Is Full of 'SEO Chum' There's a growing perception that Google is in decline or dying. This is happening even as its "back end" is becoming much more sophisticated.
News Two-Factor Reviews, Paid Links Work, Smart Speaker Growth Flat Two-Factor Fake Review Fix Review bombing is becoming a bigger problem. It shows up with games and, more often, movies and TV. Typically, it's a loosely organized effort driven by
News Local Keywords Redux, ReviewTrackers Bought, Service = Great Marketing 1K Keywords: 34% Are Local Earlier this week we discussed the top 1,000 search keywords (desktop). Two things jumped out: the list is dominated by brand and local queries.
News Top 1K Keywords, Wonder v. Webvan, Text You Must Brands, Local Dominate Top Searches Food near me and restaurants near me are the leading local queries in the top 1,000 keywords according to a recent analysis (using Ahrefs
News Facebook Outlook, Gen ZMB, Oliver's Tech Takedown Debating the Outlook for Facebook A number of speculative articles have recently appeared, some undoubtedly driven by schadenfreude, about whether Facebook/Meta is merely pivoting or foundering. For example, the
News Amazon Local Ads, H&M Smart Mirrors, Facebook Hardware Fail Amazon Eyeing 'Local Ads' Opportunity Earlier this week job listings for an Amazon Local Ads "startup business within Amazon Ads" appeared. One listing for a senior BD manager reads, "This
News Apple Highlights, Retailers ❤️ Search, Print Media Pain Apple's WWDC Highlights Apple's developer conference, WWDC, happened this week. With the exception of a new MacBook Air, the announcements focused on software. We were struck by Continuity Camera, which
News Yep It, Work Surveillance Creep, the Antitrust Race Yep It, Says Ahrefs Last week we discovered Yep, a new search engine from Ahrefs (that's right). It reportedly cost $60 million to build and has its own index (rather
News Sandberg Exits, Walmart's Last-Mile, AR Gets Social Sheryl Sandberg Leaves the Building In the roughly 48 hours since Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg said she was leaving the company, there's been an outpouring of commentary about her departure
News Apple Search Engine, Cookiepocalypse, Email Wins Again Rumor: Apple Search Engine Next Week Next week Apple hosts its annual developer conference WWDC. Among the announcements will be a preview of iOS 16, but apparently no VR/AR
News Ads 20% of GDP, CTR and Rankings (Again), Antitrust Reform Fading? Note: Monday is Memorial Day in the US; we're taking the day off. We'll be back next Wednesday. Have a great weekend. Report: Ads Drive ~20% of US Economy Advertising
News New Google Ads, AR Rising, What Tech Will Stick? New Google Ads: In-Store Goals, Video, AR Google I/O led with local and announced numerous changes, updates and improvements to search. Yesterday's Google Marketing Live was a kind of
News Local Ad Pack, SMB Pessimism, DIY Restaurants & Retail Google Shows 'Local Ad Pack' Because there can never be too many ads, Google appears to be testing a Local Pack consisting entirely of ads. It was discovered last week
News Marketing Privacy, CTR and Search Rankings, Ad-Free Social Media New Apple, DDG Ads Market Privacy Two effective new ad campaigns market privacy and take aim at online tracking. One, from DuckDuckGo [https://twitter.com/duckduckgo/status/1526555252236988419?s=12&
News Yelp Request a Call, OOH Drives Search, Pay with Face Yelp's 'Request Call' Leads Option Yelp continues to build out new non-advertising lead-gen capabilities for businesses. The latest is "Request a Call [https://blog.yelp.com/news/yelp-launches-request-a-call-to-help-consumers-connect-quickly-and-seamlessly-with-services-businesses/] ." It's an
News My Ad Center, Social vs. Search ROI, Sloppy M&A My Ad Center: Will People Use It? In Google's "100 things we announced at I/O" blog post [https://blog.google/technology/developers/io-2022-100-things/], My Ad Center is number 90.
News Google 'Ambient Search,' Coming Moderation Crisis, iOS Opt-ins 22% Google's 'Ambient Search' Vision When we collectively talk about "search," we typically focus on keywords entered in a search box (via typing or voice) and the corresponding SERP (desktop or
Analysis Local Visual Search Center Stage at Google I/O Among a flurry of announcements, Google Maps 'Immersive View,' Multisearch Near Me and Scene Explorer reflect the increasingly visual future of local search.