Welcome to Part II of Edition No. 81 of my weekly newsletter, providing practical analysis in the world of digital content strategy.
Google has done a lot to improve its AI Overview (formerly SGE) search results. People still hate them, though. They want to turn them off.
But like a never-ending a loop of Bluey episodes in my dentist’s office, there’s nothing you can do to stop them.
One report that came out this week declares AIOs “devastating” for the news industry. I find this more hyperbolic than someone telling me Seinfeld is the greatest sitcom of all-time.
One more “intro” note before we get to this week’s latest updates: I’m taking a limited break from publishing. (I know, I was just on vacation last week, but this time it’s different.)
I imagine I’ll get back in the newsletter saddle in about a month. Until then, I’ll extend all paid subscriptions for double the amount of time I take off. e.g. if I take off for four weeks, I’ll extend paid subscriptions by eight.
If there are things you love/hate about the newsletter, I would be really excited to hear from you to inform my strategy going forward.
OK, let’s get to this week’s updates.
GA4
As a Google Analytics 360 administrator, you can now include Google Marketing Platform (GMP) groups in recipient lists when you send reports by email via the 'Schedule Email' and 'Send Email' share options.
-Google, June 20
We've enhanced the Advertising section of Google Analytics 4 (GA4). You can now see the number of users who are eligible for remarketing and ads personalization in Google Ads; these are called advertising segments. The GA4 advertising segments are synonymous with audience segments in the Google Ads Audience Manager.
-Google, June 18
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SEO
June Spam Algorithm Update is Underway
It’s expected to take about a week to complete.
SpamBrain is our AI-based spam-prevention system. From time-to-time, we improve that system to make it better at spotting spam and to help ensure it catches new types of spam.
Sites that see a change after a spam update should review our spam policies to ensure they are complying with those. Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.
Google Won’t Let You Turn off AI Overviews
“AI Overviews in Search (outside of Search Labs) are a Search feature like knowledge panels and can't be turned off.”
“Like all the Search features we build, our goal is to help people find the information they’re looking for quickly and reliably.”
There is a "workaround," though:
"However, you can select the Web filter after you perform a search. This filter displays only text-based links without features like AI Overviews."
This reminds me of Instagram not giving users reverse-chron feeds by default.
AI-Written News Summaries By Keyword Topic
A Press Gazette-led investigation has found that AI-written summaries were returned for nearly a quarter of news-related search queries in mid-May in the US, with the result that organic links to publisher articles were pushed far down the page.
The research looked at 3,300 of the most important search terms for leading publications and found that AI-written summaries were offered as the top result in nearly a quarter of cases (23.7%).
In terms of prominence, the AI Overview pushed the first search result down to roughly the equivalent of position five, or lower, in organic search results.
Google says publishers will still get traffic from being cited within AIO results. As the article points out, though, Google hasn’t released data on this that would allow publishers to determine how much traffic comes from AIO vs. a traditional search result.
Yes, this seems alarming, BUT!…
While AI-written summaries appeared for nearly 24 percent of the queries studied, that figure drops significantly for searches related to:
Specific news stories (12 percent)
Local/regional news (10)
Sports (3)
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Social Media
Messenger is Getting an AI Upgrade for Businesses
We’re training AI on the most popular questions businesses receive on Messenger, built with Meta Llama 3, to understand and respond to customer messages about products in engaging and natural ways.
Select businesses can get started by sharing information about themselves and their Meta product catalog in Meta Business Suite. These chats can be initiated through a click to message ad, organically or the “Send Message” button on a business’s Facebook Page.
Customers always have the option to request to message with a human agent, and businesses can also manually jump into the conversation at any time.
Instagram rolls out Live broadcasts for close friends
…And Adds Music for Carousel Posts with Videos
TikTok Files Opening Brief on Unconstitutional Ban
“Today we filed our opening brief in federal court as part of our litigation seeking to overturn the unconstitutional TikTok ban.”
Snapchat: Introducing New AR Experiences, Powered by GenAI
“This early prototype makes it possible to type in an idea for a transformation and generate vivid AR experiences in real time.”
Threads API Launches
This means you can now use tools like Buffer to post to Threads.
I use Buffer as one example. As of this writing, Threads is not yet available on Buffer as a channel, but I imagine it will be soon.
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Miscellaneous
Tobacco-like warning label for social media sought by US surgeon general who asks Congress to act
“Social media today is like tobacco decades ago: It’s a product whose business model depends on addicting kids. And as with cigarettes, a surgeon general’s warning label is a critical step toward mitigating the threat to children,” Josh Golin, executive director at Fairplay, an organization that is dedicated to ending marketing to children, said in a statement.
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