Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 71 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
This week’s Friday Five is Google-heavy, but touches on different products: GA4, search and Gemini.
Friday Five
I. Google Apologizes for Gemini’s Debut
II. Don’t Worry – ‘News’ Tab is Here to Stay
III. ‘Primary Channel Group’ is Now the GA4 Default
IV. Make Up Your Mind! (Key Events Came Back, Then Left Again)
V. Google is Paying Reddit $60 Million To Train its AI
VI. Other Important Updates
I. Google Apologizes for Gemini’s Debut
It’s clear that this feature missed the mark. Some of the images generated are inaccurate or even offensive. We’re grateful for users’ feedback and are sorry the feature didn't work well.
The statement follows criticism that it depicted specific white figures (like the US Founding Fathers) or groups like Nazi-era German soldiers as people of color, possibly as an overcorrection to long-standing racial bias problems in AI.
🛠 Why does this matter?
Much better a mistake like this that takes Google back to the drawing board than something much more extreme.
Like toppling the financial system or some other doomsday AI scenario.
Whatever your perspective, this shows how the pressure of competition is forcing companies with lots of power to deploy products that aren’t fully baked.
But I doubt that will slow the likes of Meta, OpenAI, Mistral and others too much. It’s the 21st century digital gold rush, and the fastest ones to “San Francisco” win the prize.
Related: Elon Sues Sam
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II. Google Briefly Removed ‘News’ Tab from Search Results
“The News filter is available to users now and we do not have plans to remove it. In an effort to better understand the preferences of our users, we were testing different ways to show filters on Search and as a result, a small subset of users were temporarily unable to access some of them.”
🛠 Why does this matter?
Even Search Liason Danny Sullivan was surprised.
The news tab is here to stay, Google says, but why even experiment with removing it?
My best guess: something to do with liability.
While news results can show up in the main search results, the news tab is something users have to navigate to. It’s not being shoved down their throats.
Bullet dodged for publishers, I suppose. This could have been a significant dent in Google-referred news traffic.
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III. ‘Primary Channel Group’ is Now the GA4 Default
We have added the Primary Channel Group, a new, editable channel group that will be the default reporting channel for all channel reports.”
…
The Primary Channel Group allows you to control your default reporting channel, creating a record of custom channel changes over time for historical reporting purposes, while still maintaining all custom channel groups which reflect the most current definition across all historical data.
The initial criteria for the Primary Channel Group is the same as the Default Channel Group, and so all your historical data in the Primary Channel Group will match that of the Default Channel group until you change the criteria for the Primary Channel Group.
🛠 Why does this matter?
The existing rules for default channels are a bit of a black box. For example, here’s the definition of traffic that goes into the Organic Social channel:
“Organic Social is the channel by which users arrive at your site/app via non-ad links on social sites like Facebook or Twitter.”
Another definition further down the same page:
“Source matches a regex list of social sites
OR
Medium is one of (“social”, “social-network”, “social-media”, “sm”, “social network”, “social media”)”
Great, so we know Facebook and Twitter (X) go into organic social. But without the “regex list of social sites,” how do I know what else to filter in and out of that channel? (Or any channel for that matter. Organic social is just an example.)
Unfortunately, this feature update doesn’t solve that issue. If you click the pencil at the top right of the following screenshot (in the Admin tab), it lets you change your primary channel group from the Default Channel Group to one of your custom ones. (In my case, Brad’s Channels.)
I must admit, Brad’s channels aren’t very useful because the regex lists for each default channel remains a mystery. If Google told us all sources and mediums included in each channel, we could filter out the ones we wanted and filter in the ones that were missing.
One example I have brought up in the past: mail.google.com is counted as an Organic Search source. It should instead be counted as Email. So yeah, you might have traffic from GMail being counted as organic search traffic.
Thanks for nothing, Google.
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IV. Make Up Your Mind, GA4! (Key Events Came Back, Then Left Again)
Speaking of frustrating things about GA4…
Weeks ago, a mysterious page popped up in GA4 documentation indicating that conversion events (which were simply “goals” in UA) would be called “key events” going forward.
That documentation was later removed.
But it was back again this week.
And now removed again.
Are you keeping up? Here’s what it looked like:
🛠 Why does this matter?
There’s clearly experimentation (if not consternation) around what to call goals/conversions/key events.
It seems that if the name does change, nothing else will. What I mean is, the functionality will be the same as when they were called “goals” as it is now with “conversions.”
The main thing to know is that if conversions go away and key events take their place, don’t panic. Just modify your vocabulary.
Unless they never actually make this change. Then forget everything I said.
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V. Google is Paying Reddit $60 Million To Train its AI
Google and Reddit have announced an expanded partnership, leveraging Reddit's rich, user-generated content to train Google's AI algorithms.
Reddit enters into a $60 million annual contract with Google, allowing the tech giant to access Reddit's content for AI model training.
The partnership includes a new Cloud partnership using Vertex AI to enhance Reddit's search and other platform capabilities, alongside Google developing more content-forward displays of Reddit information across its products.
Google gains access to Reddit’s Data API, facilitating efficient, structured access to Reddit's content for improved understanding and display on Google's SERP.
This collaboration aims to make it easier for users to access Reddit's content across both platforms, enriching Google's AI with more human-written experiences and opinions.
🛠 Why does this matter?
Reddit is preparing for its IPO. This will surely help its valuation. This deal not only provides a novel revenue stream but also positions the platform strategically within the AI development landscape.
While Google's access to Reddit's vast, diverse content offers a significant boost to its AI's learning capabilities, its results were already prominent on SERPs…
…much to the chagrin of many.
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VI. Other Important Updates
“We’re removing restrictions which limited how much eligible creators could earn from the Performance bonus each month” -Meta
You can now control video playback quality on X -X
With This LinkedIn Algorithm Change, Your Best Posts Could Reach New Readers for Months -Entrepreneur
Interesting update to the NY Times robots.txt file:
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