Category: Latest News

Google wants its publishers in Europe to solicit users’ consent on its behalf under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy rules. The GDPR rules which will take effect on May 25, requires companies to gain explicit consent for collection and use of personal information in targeted ads. And Google’s consent plan is something that ad giants like Facebook and Amazon can follow. “To comply, we will be updating our EU consent policy when the GDPR takes effect and the revised policy will require that publishers take extra steps…

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Cambridge Analytica, the controversial firm embroiled in the mishandling of Facebook user data, has announced its shut down on Wednesday. Its British parent SCL Elections Ltd. will also be shuttered as the data analytics company reported a significant decline in business. In a press release, Cambridge Analytica blamed negative media coverage for the data scandal. It lost suppliers and clients while facing mounting legal fees, prompting the company to file for insolvency in the UK and begin bankruptcy proceedings in the US. Moreover, the company stated that it will meet…

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Microsoft announced that they are buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in an all-cash transaction. LinkedIn will retain its distinct brand, culture and independence according to their press release. Jeff Weiner will remain CEO of LinkedIn, reporting to Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. Reid Hoffman, chairman of the board, co-founder and controlling shareholder of LinkedIn, and Weiner both fully support this transaction. The transaction is expected to close this calendar year. “I’ve always had a great admiration for LinkedIn and what Reed, Jeff and the team here have built,” stated Nadella.…

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Microsoft is reportedly taking on Amazon, as the company ventures into retail territory. The company is said to be looking into checkout-free shopping, an innovation that Amazon has pioneered. Reuters reported that at least six people have talked to them about Microsoft developing technology that will give retail companies the option to have cashier and checkout-free shops. Microsoft is said to have partnered with fellow Redmond-based company AVA Retail. The company develops systems that can collate information about shoppers. This time around, it will be working with the renowned software company…

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Google has announced the rollout of its mobile-first search indexing, after more than a year of testing and experimentation. The move was first detailed in 2016 when Google wanted to use phone-optimized versions of websites to index pages in its search results. The shift to mobile-first indexing comes from the rising trend of more people using mobile devices to browse and search the web. However, some sites have significantly different versions of content for desktop and mobile browsers, the latter often a watered-down copy of the former. “Mobile-first indexing means…

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To get the most out of marketing campaigns, it is sometimes necessary to do some tweaking and fine tuning before your ads connect with their targeted audience. For this reason, marketers must gauge the performance of their ad placements which can be gleaned from the reports provided by the ad platform showing data and statistics on specific ad metrics. Google Adwords is giving advertisers more ways to determine the performance of their click-to-message campaigns by introducing new ad metrics for the product. In a recent blog post, the company announced…

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Facebook has launched several updates for its Groups to help admins manage them efficiently and keep communities safe. The rollout of new tools, controls, and additional features are in line with the company’s focus on creating engagement in various communities on the site. With more than a billion members across millions of active groups, Facebook is putting in an effort to help community managers handle nearly every activity each day. That’s why admins will now have a dedicated customer support service to handle queries and reported issues. And with more…

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At the Sixth International Conference on Learning Representations, Jannis Bulian and Neil Houlsby, researchers at Google AI, presented a paper that shed light on new methods they’re testing to improve search results. While publishing a paper certainly doesn’t mean the methods are being used, or even will be, it likely increases the odds when the results are highly successful. And when those methods also combine with other actions Google is taking, one can be almost certain. I believe this is happening, and the changes are significant for search engine optimization specialists (SEOs)…

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Chartbeat is reporting that direct mobile traffic and traffic from Google search have both surpassed referrals from Facebook on mobile devices. This is at least partly attributable to Facebook News Feed algorithm changes that happened late last year and continued early this year. The change, in which Facebook prioritized friends and family posts over “public content,” resulted in traffic declines at many publisher sites that had been relying heavily on the social site for traffic. Chartbeat’s data shows that traffic to publisher sites and native apps has held steady. As Facebook referral traffic to publishers using…

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Google has announced the rollout of its mobile-first search indexing, after more than a year of testing and experimentation. The move was first detailed in 2016 when Google wanted to use phone-optimized versions of websites to index pages in its search results. The shift to mobile-first indexing comes from the rising trend of more people using mobile devices to browse and search the web. However, some sites have significantly different versions of content for desktop and mobile browsers, the latter often a watered-down copy of the former. “Mobile-first indexing means…

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