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October saw many of the tech giants either expanding or narrowing their product offering. While Facebook and Google both have new product launches under their belt, Twitter responded to a poor set of recent financial results and job losses by axing video sharing service Vine. There’s also plenty of Distilled news, including great offers for our upcoming SearchLove San Diego conference. Read on for all the stories.
Main news stories
Google is splitting its search index in two
Google is dividing its search index into two separate versions - one for mobile and one for desktop. The most obvious change will be the added incentive for publishers to make better and richer content for mobile, as Google continues to prioritise it over desktop. The change will happen in the next few months, according to Gary Ilyes.
Read the full story (Business Insider)
Twitter narrows focus and kills Vine
Twitter’s valuation has been sliding in recent months, and a very public auction didn’t result in a large acquisition, so it has taken steps to take it somewhat back to basics. This has started by discontinuing vine, the six-second video sharing service.
Read the full story (The Financial Times)
Facebook launches Marketplace
While Twitter is narrowing its focus, Facebook is widening its scope, by launching both Facebook at Work and Marketplace. Marketplace is a service where users can easily buy and sell items from one another. Facebook describes it as an “evolution of social media” as Facebook is already a popular place for user-to-user buying and selling.
Read the full story (The Verge)
Publishers happy with AMP traffic
If there were questions about Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages project (AMP) when it publically launched in February, these have quickly evaporated as it has become a significant portion of publishers’ search traffic. Currently, it is estimated that it drives 10 to 15 percent, with that figure expected to grow. There are, however, still questions surrounding monetization of AMP.
Read the full story (Digiday)
Google goes big at hardware unveiling
At the recent Google event, the search giant went all in on its own range of hardware, including the much-anticipated Google Pixel and Pixel XL, the first Google phone made without the aid of an established phone manufacturer. There were also debuts for Google Wifi, a multi-point network for the home; and the Daydream View Headset, which works with any Daydream-enabled smartphone.
Read the full story (The Verge)
NYT buying Wirecutter for $30 million
Wirecutter is an online consumer guide that provides recommendations on consumer electronics and gadgets. The site makes money through affiliate links and digital publishers, like the NYT, Digital publishers have become increasingly interested in that approach, as digital advertising revenue becomes more difficult to find.
Read the full story (Recode)
Distilled news
Following on from a very successful SearchLove London, tickets are now on sale for San Diego 2017, and we’re currently running a promotion that includes 12 months of DistilledU free with every ticket. On the Distilled blog, Creative Lead Volodymyr Kupriyanov laid out his process for uncovering data for creative content, while Senior Designer Vicke Cheung tackled the problem of maps on mobile. We are also still compiling results for our survey on ranking pages on Google searches. You can see the results so far here.
More news
- Facebook trying to clone Snapchat success (The Guardian)
- Google removes ability to demote sitelinks (Google)
- Microsoft launches new Surface Studio (The Verge)