OpenAI's announcement regarding the development of an AI-powered search engine marks a potentially critical development in the search landscape. The tool, which would be partially powered by Microsoft, is positioning itself as a direct competitor to Google. While it is unlikely that there will be any major shifts in the short term, advertisers should keep an eye on shifting user behavior trends. There is no reason to think the search industry will be disrupted in a major way in the near futu...

For the first time, mobile sales surpassed desktop sales in the 2023 holiday season. Google is now prioritizing mobile-supported webpages over desktop-first sites. Yet we're still seeing brands build websites for the desktop experience and retrofit them for mobile. Let's explore the differences between mobile and desktop SEO, the costs of falling behind in mobile SEO, and the areas to prioritize as the Web 3.0 era dawns. Mobile SEO vs. traditional SEO: the costs of misalignment S...

Key stat: 67% of US adults turn off cookies or website tracking to protect their privacy, putting it second only to changing social media privacy settings, according to a May 2023 Pew Research Center survey. Beyond the chart: This data is particularly relevant as cookies are being phased out. The start of 2024 marked the deprecation of third-party cookies for 1% of Google Chrome users, with cookies scheduled to go away completely by the end of the year. As third-party cookies fade, advertis...

A new search engine results page (SERP) is coming, and it will require a new advertising model. Some expect that to happen in 2024. When it comes to changes this year, 'the waning power of the search engine results page might loom largest,' Brian Morrissey, founder of The Rebooting newsletter, said in a podcast. He referred to changes affected by artificial intelligence (AI). Some believe the future role of media and platforms will be to channel narrow interests to people so that they ca...

In a ruling with far-reaching implications for home improvement pros who depend on lead aggregators to fill their marketing funnels, the Federal Communications Commission issued an order Dec. 13 that ‘closes the lead-generation loophole' in the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA. The lead-generation loophole, which allowed businesses to use certain exemptions in the TCPA, has long been a point of contention. Marketers have been utilizing lead-generation firms to navigate TC...

This has been a turbulent year, and that's reflected in Google's top trending searches of 2023. The latest annual list reveals that war, shootings, and natural disasters dominated the top trending news searches of the year, both globally and in the US. [As a reminder: Top trending searches do not refer to the most volume, but rather those with the highest spikes this year in comparison to 2022.] Unlike in years past, Google hasn't released a list of the top trending searches overall. But wit...

Mark your calendars for Jan. 4, 2024, all you deprecation skeptics. That's the day Google will release a new browser feature called Tracking Protection. When enabled, it will automatically cut off a website's access to third-party cookies. On Jan. 4, Chrome will activate Tracking Protection for 1% of a randomly selected group of Chrome users globally. People will know they've been chosen if they see a modal pop up on the right side of the address bar in their browser when they open C...

Marketers have taken on more responsibilities since the pandemic, and CMOs are increasingly being tasked with demonstrating markeitng's impact on the bottom line while facing pressures to "do more with less." Along the way, marketers are using more channels, navigating more technology solutions, and managing more product and service partners, according to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Quad. One of the biggest changes for marketers has been the number o...

Every minute, an estimated 3.8 million queries are typed into Google, prompting its algorithms to spit out results for hotel rates or breast-cancer treatments or the latest news about President Trump. They are arguably the most powerful lines of computer code in the global economy, controlling how much of the world accesses information found on the internet, and the starting point for billions of dollars of commerce. Read the complete article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-google-inter...

In today's expansive yet interconnected digital marketing landscape, creating a successful online presence requires a deep understanding of various marketing channels. While SEO and PPCare well-known strategies for enhancing online visibility, it's essential to explore emerging and overlooked opportunities like retail media and social media, including social search. This article tackles the synergies between these channels and how brands can offer a more engaging content experience to ...