SEARCH NEWS
Google Limiting Keyword Planner Data
Here’s a new development that will draw the ire of many users. After months of the keyword planner acting up, Google has confirmed that it will be limiting access to Google Keyword Planner to those who do not have an active campaign and with limited spending.
Google Punishing Intrusive Mobile Ads
This move, however, seems to be a step in the right direction. Google has announced that it will start punishing websites who employ annoying mobile interstitial ads or pop ups.
Google Showing Images in Search Snippets
Google has started displaying thumbnail images in its mobile search results pages for certain types of queries. These seem to be for search queries with a commercial intent so there’s definitely some value there.
Google AdWords Quality Score Update
Google has announced an algorithm update for its AdWords Quality Score. Now, keywords with insufficient historical data will get a null QS.
SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
Facebook Fires Trending Team
It came as quite a surprise when it was released that Facebook’s ‘trending’ module was curated and tweaked by humans. Recently though, Facebook fired its entire human curation team for the trending module and results have been, well, between mixed and disastrous. Judging from the experience of how fun it was to work in that particular team, maybe they left en masse instead.
LinkedIn Launches Conversion Tracking
LinkedIn has introduced conversion tracking to help you measure how many leads, sign ups, content downloads and other results you care about. “With conversion tracking, you can understand more about the specific ads and even the unique LinkedIn audiences that are driving your campaign conversions – including the seniority, industry, job function, and company size of the people you’re converting to leads.”
Instagram Introduces Instagram Stories
Instagram’s new Instagram Stories will let you share photos and images in a slideshow format that will disappear after 24 hours. You will not be able to like or publish a comment though.
Ad Blocking Software Will No Longer Work on Facebook Desktop
Facebook has found a way to bypass ad blocking software – at least on the desktop. The company has declared that ad blocking software will no longer work on the desktop version of Facebook. Facebook claims that with its precise targeting and updated user preferences feature, it will be able to target more relevant ads to its users.
Ad Blocker Plus – Now with Ads!
Talking about ad blocking software, it seems that Ad Blocker Plus – the app we thought was going to save us from all the annoying online banners – has started to sell ads. It does this by asking companies to pay to get on its own ‘whitelist’ so that their ads can slip through Ad Blocker’s filters. The Internet wasn’t very happy about that, of course.
Twitter Rolls Out Big Changes to 140-Character Limit
Twitter has mentioned this before but it looks like they are rolling this out very soon. Media attachments, quote tweets and your own retweets will no longer count towards their famous 140-character limit. Surprisingly, your Twitter handle still does.
GENERAL NEWS
Singapore’s SPRING to Release New Customer Protection Measures
Online retailers might want to take note that SPRING will be releasing new measures in an effort to better protect consumers. The new Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act (CPFTA) will help to make sure that errant retailers will face the strong arm of the law but the Minister of State for Trade and Industry Koh Poh Koon has acknowledge that it may be difficult to enforce on cross-border online transactions.
Facebook Accessing WhatsApp Data
Facebook paid US$22 billion for WhatsApp and it’s finally beginning to make its move. WhatsApp will now start sharing its account data to Facebook, but not its messages. Here’s how you can opt out.