Butterflies Brings AIs to Social Media
Butterflies, a new “AI social networking app”, has launched on iOS and Android. The brainchild of a former Snap engineer, Butterflies allows users to create an AI persona and then interact with other people’s creations via posts, comments, and direct messages. It officially launched on Tuesday (18 June) after a five-month beta. It’s currently free to use, but its creator says a subscription model could follow.
Instagram Adds Live Streams for Close Friends
Group chats are about to get more interesting on Instagram. The social media app added a new live-streaming feature for ‘Close Friends’ this week. Up to four users can now partake in a private video session, and everyone on their respective Close Friends list can tune in. The move is part of the growing “private sharing” trend on socials.
Wikipedia is the Top Source for “People Also Ask”
New research has found that Wikipedia is the most popular source cited in Google’s People Also Ask (PPA). Over 30 days, Wikipedia was featured in 16% of responses, way ahead of nasa.gov (2%), Britannica (1.7%), and YouTube (1.7%). The study’s author, NewzDash, noted that PPAs are often overlooked by SEOs, even though they are a “very important SERP feature”, especially for news publishers.
Vast Majority of Marketers to Spend More on SEO
SEO budgets are increasing this year as brands double down on publishing high-quality, user-centric content. According to a new study from Ignite Visibility, four in five marketers will spend more on SEO in 2024. A track record of demonstrating how organic tactics improve key metrics has helped; 59.2% of marketers say their content marketing campaigns generated new leads and sales last year.
US Surgeon Calls for Social Media Warning Labels
A senior health official in the US wants warning labels for social media. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy believes visible tags with messages about the potential harm social media sites can cause would serve as a regular reminder to teenagers and parents that they have “not been proved safe”.
Google Discussion Referrals Drive Reddit’s Web Traffic
While Reddit isn’t always an authoritative source on a subject, searchers often use the site’s name as a suffix when entering queries to find relevant and personal advice and opinions on subjects. New data suggests Google is now inclined to do the same. Reddit’s web traffic has soared 39% during the last twelve months, with a Business Insider report attributing at least some of that uptick to its greater visibility in search results. Google inked a $60m deal earlier this year to use Reddit’s data for AI services. Is the increase just a coincidence?
Threads Shows ‘Topic Tags’ Above Posts
Meta’s newest social app, Threads, has added a handy topic tag suggestion feature above users’ posts. The new tool will help people quickly find related content.
YouTube Tests Community Notes
Finally, YouTube is giving creators the chance to provide additional context and information for videos with community notes. YouTube says a “limited number” of contributors are currently trialling the new feature.
