A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.
The advertising portion seems specific to “general search text advertising,” so YouTube shouldn’t be at risk.
We’ll see where this goes, but my guess is Big G won’t be buying default status anymore.
The prospect of losing tens of billions in guaranteed revenue from Google — which presently come at little to no cost to Apple — disincentivizes Apple from launching its own search engine when it otherwise has built the capacity to do so
Google has pulled the plug on pulling the plug on third-party cookies in Chrome.
It seems they couldn’t find a privacy-preserving replacement that would also preserve ad revenue.
Per Google:
we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing
Basically, Chrome will do what iOS started doing in 2021 with the advent of App Tracking Transparency in 14.5.
Cookies have crumbled, but the crumbs are sticking around.
Similar to Google:
Microsoft Ads is rolling out a new feature called “brand lists” for Performance Max (PMax) campaigns.
Brand lists allow advertisers to exclude their ads from appearing alongside specific brands, potentially improving ad relevance and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Can pick up to 20 but sounds like you’re limited to a pre-defined list or requesting additions.
🚨 🪦
Google to kill off URL shortener once and for all
Links shortened with goo.gl will stop working in 2025
You have just over a year to migrate if you’re currently using Google URL Shortener.
via The Register
From MarTech: Steve Ganem, Product Director of Google Analytics, on what’s ahead for GA4
More offline data and more AI
continue to innovate and invest in making it the most effective, holistic and durable analytics solution
Next addition to the Google graveyard: infinite scroll
Google said this change is to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven’t explicitly requested. Loading more results automatically didn’t lead to significantly higher satisfaction with Search
More on the Google ranking factors leak & why it shouldn’t distract you from focusing on users.
People have long divorced SEO from user experience, I think the two need to work more closely together. Because ultimately you need someone to come to your page and stay there. That is a signal that Google is using.
-Mike King
Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is search engine optimization (SEO).
Google’s search ranking factors leaked & the SEO world has been doing its best Shark Week impression trying to digest the info and tease out the secrets contained within.
It’s over 14k attributes.
I haven’t dug in yet, but I agree with this approach:
Ultimately, you want to build content that people like. That people want to click on. That people want to consume. That people want to share. That people just want to go back to.
-Barry Schwartz
Content may be distributed by algorithm, but it shouldn’t be created for them.