Internet Marketing News April 2015 Recap

Happy May! Here is an overview of the top Internet marketing news stories of April 2015.

Google

  • Taking App indexing to the next level, Google will now serve relevant Android apps that you can install based on a search query, when searching on an Android device. Originally, only installed apps would appear on search results.
  • Google has announced its plan to include TrueView ad formats available for programmatic video buying via DoubleClick.
  • Google’s predictive search tool, Google Now, announced 70 additional apps that have recently been added. This includes apps from Zipcar, Spotify, ABC News, and Open Table.
  • As promised, Google updated its Mobile Search algorithm to reward mobile-friendly sites. For more information read our blog post, Google’s Mobile Update – Are You Prepared?

Bing

  • Bing has completely redesigned their mobile homepage to include quick searching and swipable features. Users can swipe up and down to see popular topics, and access their Bing accounts, reward summary, and more settings.
  • Also on Mobile, Bing has updated its image search to include “bubbles”—intelligent groupings of related keywords. Bing is hoping users can use these bubbles to find related images and browse related photos.

  • Bing Ads Shopping Campaigns are now in Beta as Bing hopes more advertisers will try Product Ads. The program is expected to open up in the summer.

Yahoo

  • Powered by Flurry, Yahoo is enabling persona targeting in Gemini for native advertising. These personas are based on behavioral data of heavy app users and include over 40 audience segments.
  • Yahoo and Bing reached a new search deal allowing Yahoo to serve search ads on the PC. Under the new agreement, Bing has to be used for 51% of all search results, allowing Yahoo to use Gemini for the remaining 49%.
  • Tumblr announced a new ad placement, “Sponsored Day” where advertisers can place an ad for 24 hours on a user’s dashboard, targeted at a specific country or globally.

YouTube

  • In an effort to increase viewer interaction on skippable videos, YouTube introduced cards to its TrueView in-stream ads. Advertisers will be charged when a user clicks on the card or watches the ad.

YouTube Cards

Facebook

  • Facebook launches Messenger.com, a web-based version of Facebook’s messaging option. This comes weeks after Facebook announced it would be opening up the platform for third-party developers. Facebook Messenger now also brings video chat to mobile users.
  • Based on user feedback, Facebook is updating its newsfeed algorithm to include more posts from friends over pages. This, of course, will continue to negatively affect organic reach for brands.
  • Diving into the content production industry, Facebook launched Anthology, a program that matches brands with video publishers. Intended for major marketers, brands can work with Facebook’s content partners or in-house creative shop to create video content for the Facebook platform.
  • Facebook announced a new local search product named Hello, a new dialer app that offers local search. Users can search for a business by its name or category and call it within the same app.
  • Instagram also received updates this month launching new filters, color editing tool, and the ability to add emoji hashtags. In addition, users can subscribe for push notifications from specific users.

Twitter

  • Twitter has updated its quoted tweet and tweet with comment functionality to be more visual. Quoted tweets now display as embeds instead of text or a link.
  • On mobile, Twitter has removed the Discover tab and placed trending topics to the search page. Trending topics also now include a short description to help users understand the context of the topic.
  • In a partnership with DoubleClick, Twitter advertisers will soon be able to buy Promoted Tweets via DoubleClick. In addition, Twitter has acquired TellApart, a marketing technology firm offering ecommerce and retail business cross-device retargeting. These two updates will provide Twitter’s advertisers better data across apps, devices, and platforms.
  • Twitter has removed the yellow badge from its Promoted Tweets in favor of a more subtle “promoted” or “sponsored” text tag.

Pinterest

  • Called Marketing Developer Partners, Pinterest gives API access to 10 companies offering social media management platforms. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, this will help coordinate third- party integration for brands and agencies.
  • Pinterest launched a new “Pin It” button for users to bookmark content around the web faster. The button can be installed as an extension on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, trimming the number of clicks from six down to three.

LinkedIn

  • LinkedIn announced it plans to buy Lynda.com, a professional education platform, for $1.5 billion. Lynda is a subscription service of online courses taught by industry professionals.
  • The professional social network released a new social sharing and scheduling app dubbed Elevate. LinkedIn says the app has three goals: to help users curate, share, and measure content.

Foursquare

  • Foursquare introduced a new product called Pinpoint, a new ad targeting tool based off of Foursquare’s location data.

Yelp

  • Yelp launched “Yelp Now,” a search filter where users can find listings based on reservation availability or those that offer takeout or delivery.

Have any questions about any of the above stories or think we missed something? Let us know in the comments section below. Also, be sure to check back in early June for our May recap.

In the meantime, check out our Thoughts Page featuring our latest publications, blog posts, and featured articles; and sign up for the Catalyst Must-Have Digital Insights e-Newsletter for the latest thought leadership, industry updates, and Catalyst news.

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