Marketing 

Snapchat and Amazon Could Be Teaming Up on a New Visual Search Tool

Snapchat is seeking to expand its horizons and utilize its camera to go beyond social media with a new visual search feature. This novel search capability and a team-up with Amazon could open a new revenue stream for the company. According to reports, a new Snapchat version for Android smartphones includes a secret code for a new “Visual Search” feature. This new feature, dubbed Project Eagle, can allegedly utilize Snapchat’s camera to send a barcode or product image scans to Amazon. The retail powerhouse will then display the results of…

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SEM 

SEMPO Membership Meeting – Chicago SES 2004

Barbara Coll welcomed us, well there are not too many of us here. She started with SFO Regions (Search/Find/Obtain) is just starting, search is really early in the stage. She explains that Search marketing, to be taken to the next level requires education of corporations, consumers and channels. SEMPO has educated the media publishers, the press, the members, and the advertisers. SEMPO does it providing a “huge” amount of materials on the site. Recognition for search marketing this year was huge; Google IPO, MSN Investment, Large Agency Adoption, Advertisers expected…

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google 

Google Search Algorithm Update Currently Mild

Since the roll out of the Google Speed Update – the SEO community has been on high alert to see what type of impact it has on the overall mobile search results. The deal is, I’ve been tracking it for the past couple of days since it began rolling out and the chatter is mixed. I’d classify the chatter as mild and the tools themselves show a mix. Here is some of the chatter from the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread: Anyone seeing any ranking changes now that this speed update has…

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Bing 

Bing Ads Bans Third-Party Technical Support Services Companies

So we just had Google AdWords announce banning payday loan ads and now Bing announced they are banning third party online technical support services to consumers. So those who have technical support companies directed at consumers can no longer use Bing Ads to promote their business. Why? Bing said “because of serious quality issues that can impact end user safety.” Bing added, “this policy change reflects Microsoft’s commitment to lead the industry in providing a safer experience for all of our end users, including populations most vulnerable to online scams…

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Latest News 

Microsoft Now Has a Free Version of Teams, Takes on Rival Slack

Microsoft is gearing up for its yearly Inspire event and has drummed up interest with the announcement of a free version of Microsoft Teams. The Teams platform has been around since 2016 and 200,000 companies are now using it. However, the lack of a free version or a freemium tier and the $60 annual fee made it inaccessible to freelancers and small businesses. This oversight may have been costly, as small and medium businesses comprise more than 90 percent of businesses worldwide. Unlike Microsoft, Slack has had a free version…

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Marketing 

2018 Will See Continued Decline in Facebook Use Among Teens

Is Facebook losing its cool factor? That seems to be the sad truth as the social media giant lost around 2.8 million young users last year. eMarketer’s 2017 forecast stated that for the first time ever, Facebook would see a drop in users. The research firm estimated that there would be a 3.4 percent drop in US users aged 12 to 17 years old. However, the reality turned out to be much worse, as that young demographic actually saw a 9.9 percent decline in users. That’s about 1.4 million people. Based…

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Bing 

Bing Ads rolling out UI updates to make bulk analysis & changes easier

Bing Ads is rolling out a couple of updates to the UI that make it easier to analyze and optimize campaigns. First, it is making it easier to adjust location target settings, including bid adjustments, in bulk across multiple campaigns. A new “Location” option in the Settings tab will show the targets set in multiple campaigns in one place. Before this update, users had to run a geographic report from the Reports section to see location target performance and then make changes at the individual campaign level. To make changes…

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google 

Google Assistant gets more helpful

Google Assistant, the app that answers questions and helps you get things done, has been enhanced with an eye toward automatically putting your daily tasks front and center on your phone. Initially launched as a search feature that also allowed you to do things like make quick phone calls, send text messages, set reminders and more, the new features provide curated information based on the time of day, location and your recent interactions with the Assistant. Based on your calendar and itineraries, you’ll see travel times to your next destination.…

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Social 

Google Tests ‘Smart Reply,’ Sends Contextual Replies to All Your Favorite Chat Apps

Replying to common messages received via your Android device will soon be a lot easier. Google is developing an app that will give you a selection of preformatted responses allowing you to reply with just one click of a button. The new project is aptly named “Reply,” which can be viewed as the mobile version of Google’s Smart Reply feature that is available in Gmail and Allo. The upcoming app, which will be initially available to Android users, will use artificial intelligence to automatically create response suggestions to inbound messages.…

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SEM 

Google shows ‘People also search for’ suggestions in ad results, too

This week, some marketers noted that Google’s organic “People also search for” box of suggested queries is showing up within the paid search results after a user clicks on an ad and then goes back to the search results page. We hadn’t noticed this feature displaying within the paid search results before either, but it turns out the inclusion of these suggestions in the ads section isn’t all that new. We’ve learned Google began showing the “People also search for” suggestions in paid search results on mobile in September 2017…

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