Google core update to roll out “in coming weeks”
Google is preparing the second core update of the year. Google Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said he expects the next major algorithmic update to start rolling out “in the coming weeks”. He added that the ranking team is currently testing and evaluating the latest tweaks. When everything has been signed off, Google will then announce a launch date.
Sunak’s Nando’s order tops UK election video list
The Labour Party won by a landslide in the UK General Election, but they didn’t top the list of most-watched videos on TikTok during the six-week campaign period. That honour went to Rishi Sunak and the Mirror Politics account. An eleven-second clip of Sunak’s favourite Nando’s order was viewed 6.1m times. In joint second was a 40-second video featuring a bearded Boris Johnson berating Keir Starmer, and a short clip of Larry the Cat at Downing Street.
Head shake is the most popular emoji in 2024
It was World Emoji Day on Wednesday (17 July). To celebrate, Emojipedia revealed the most popular and anticipated emojis in 2024. Leading the way this year is Head Shaking Horizontally (??↔?), which edged out Head Shaking (????), and Phoenix (????). The latest draft of emojis has also been approved and is set to be released in September. The most anticipated is Face with Bags Under Eyes.
Advertisers are still not convinced by Threads
Threads celebrated a 175m monthly actives milestone in July. While 25m new users have joined Meta’s platform since April, advertisers are not yet convinced. In an editorial on the media website, Digiday, several marketers noted reticence from big brands. One exec said: “Brands just don’t see the audience there yet — some of this is not understanding who that Threads audience really is, and some of this is lack of faith that an engaged audience is really there."
Google testing “Quick Takes” in search results
A smaller test was spotted in Search this week. Google has renamed the “Short videos” carousel in SERPs to “Quick Takes”. The format hasn’t changed, though. Google is still presenting engaging clips from a variety of social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Budget cuts are frustrating B2B CMOs
Three-quarters of chief marketing officers (CMOs) reported flat or reduced budgets in a new study published this week by Bospar. Two-thirds are also feeling the pressure to deliver better results, despite wrestling with a drop-off in investment. The study revealed that an “underground recession” is evident in marketing departments, with CMO job roles evolving and often being consolidated by C-suite. To adapt, CMOs should expand their skills beyond traditional marketing, use more metrics to demonstrate value, and leverage AI where possible to drive innovation and efficiency.
Google AI Overview triggers are changing
Google only launched AI Overviews (AIOs) in May, but it’s already making changes to how they are triggered in search results. In June, keywords with “best” in were responsible for 50%+ of all results with an AI Overview feature. However, the same keywords now don’t appear to be triggering AIOs at all. The triggers have now shifted to “what is” and “how to” according to research by BrightLocal. It also found Perplexity AI is currently growing its traffic by 31% each month. The chatbot-based conversational search engine launched in 2022.
