Google’s March 2024 spam update is complete
Google’s mammoth March 2024 core update hasn’t reached the finish line yet – it could take another two weeks at least. However, there was closure for the March 2024 spam update, which completed its rollout on Wednesday (20 March). The spam update went live on 5 March, so it’s taken just over two weeks to fully integrate into Google’s systems.
Google’s Director of Product, Elizabeth Tucker, said earlier this month that the core and spam update will “collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.” There are now also three new spam policies: site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse and scaled content abuse. Google says the latter two are live; site reputation abuse is set to go into effect from May 2024.
Trending Topics is live on Threads
Threads flipped the switch and turned Trending Topics on for all users in the US this week. Meta’s conversational app announced a month ago that the feature was in testing. It’s now live for everyone stateside and will likely roll out to more regions soon. Trending Topics will be available within Search and the main “For You” feed. Users will see a ranked listing of top topics under a “Trending now” banner in Search. Meanwhile, the main feed will surface content under the same banner in a horizontal carousel between posts.
Instagram tests 3-minute Reels
Social media content keeps getting longer. Hot on the heels of TikTok’s ever-increasing run time for videos, Instagram has expanded testing for longer Reels. Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared a screenshot of a three-minute upload option for Reels on Monday (18 March). Currently, users can only publish clips up to 90 seconds. The move is again designed to keep people on the app for longer and boost engagement. Meta revealed in January that view times for Reels jumped 20% year-over-year.
Publishing content in bulk not an issue for Google
Want to publish dozens of articles on your website in one go? Not a problem, according to Google. Search expert John Mueller said this week that posting content in bulk is only a problem when it’s low quality or considered spam. He added: “Some sites switch on a big batch of awesome content, and awesome is awesome.”
TikTok’s algorithm closer to being solved
ByteDance has always kept the hugely successful algorithm that powers TikTok under wraps – so much so that even some people in the company don’t fully understand how it works. However, a new study led by Boston University is finally shedding some light on the mystery. It found that 30%-50% of the first 1,000 videos that users see on the platform are based on their past behaviour, specifically likes and follows. There was a weaker correlation with the amount of time a user spent watching a video.
University of Washington professor Franziska Roesner, who worked on the study, said users’ experiences can fluctuate wildly, though. She noted: “Another thing that this surfaces is that different users have very different experiences and/or are sort of treated differently by the algorithm for whatever reason.”
