Internet Marketing News April 2014 Recap

Here is an overview of the top internet marketing news stories of April 2014.

Google

  • Google now supports additional schema markups for multiple business phone numbers and hours of operations. Phone numbers can also be labeled as customer service, technical support, billing support, bill payment, toll-free, TTY/TTD available, and country/regional specific.
  • Google is encrypting paid search queries thus limiting keyword data passed to advertisers. However, for those using AdWords or its API via tools like Marin and Kenshoo, search query data will be unaffected.
  • Google Trends introduced a “Subscribe” feature allowing users to receive emails on search topics, hot searches for country, or any US monthly top chart.
  • Google reveals three key updates to AdWords: App download ads, more insightful attribution reporting for offline conversions, and tools for efficiency and scale for enterprise search campaigns. These will be rolling out in the next couple of months.
  • Google added nine new features to the Keyword Planner Tool including graphical visualizations, location breakdowns, device segmentation, and flexible time periods. Search Engine Land compiled a full breakdown of the changes.
  • Google now allows users to filter restaurants by what’s open now, price, ratings, and cuisine on desktop or mobile devices.
  • Google held a one day, open to the public Google Glasses sale. While sales numbers were withheld, Google says all five colors are now out of stock.

Bing

  • Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to voice search and mobile personal assistants like Siri and Google Now, is now available in beta on Windows phones. Users will see personalized cards on the bottom of Bing’s homepage when logged in.  Here’s a video of the official announcement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX9P6skzZNU

Yahoo!

  • Yahoo’s recent partnership with Yelp replaced old Yahoo Local reviews with Yelp reviews. The old reviews will no longer be available.
  • Yahoo seems to be testing a knowledge graph in the sidebar on some of its search queries. The website All Google Testing discovered the test and provides instructions on how to enable the experiment.

Facebook

  • Facebook updated its algorithm to target newsfeed spam, specifically posts that explicitly ask for likes, comments, or shares, repeatedly share the same content, or contain misleading links.
  • Facebook launched FB Newswire, a Facebook page of hand-selected news stories from across Facebook. FB Newswire is a partnership with Storyful, a news agency that aggregates news content on social platforms.
  • Facebook added in-app camera and video sharing to its Messenger app. Users can now take and share photos and videos directly without leaving the Messenger app.

Twitter

  • Twitter expanded its search filter to allow users to search for lists and timelines.
  • Twitter announced App Install Ads, a new ad unit for mobile which allows app advertisers to promote tweets that include a download button.
  • Twitter’s Vine introduced Vine Messages, a new private messaging system within the Vine App. Users can send video and text messages directly to others using the app or record/send a video message to their Vine network and people in their phonebook.

LinkedIn

  • LinkedIn announced it has reached 300 million registered users, a jump from 277 million earlier this year.
  • LinkedIn added a new SlideShare app for Android users. This is the first app for SlideShare and allows users to scroll through slideshows and presentations of those they follow. Users can also subscribe to categories like tech, finance, news, and politics.
  • Google and Bing now include rich snippet data from LinkedIn. Google features the searched user’s city and title on the SERP. Bing includes those as well as the user’s photo and LinkedIn connections.

Pinterest

  • Pinterest unveiled Guided Search, a visual search engine that enables users to find relevant pins. Here’s a video introducing the new search engine.

Catalyst

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

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