Reuters says, “Alphabet Inc.’s Google is redoubling efforts to help developers of Android mobile apps build their businesses as concerns mount that the app economy has reached saturation. Under the leadership of Sameer Samat, who rejoined Google earlier this year after a spell as president of wearable tech firm Jawbone, the company is sharpening Google Play store recommendations with artificial intelligence and expanding support for various payment platforms, among other initiatives. Google’s efforts in some way mirror those of arch-rival Apple Inc., which revamped its App Store... [...]

Chris Silver Smith says, “If you or your company have seen something that harms your reputation abruptly appear in Google’s search results, you may be wondering how and why something negative could appear so fast — and how it gained against longer-established materials. It’s pretty simple, though: Google’s algorithm likes it better. Let me explain. First of all, Google has worked very hard to interpret user intent when searches are conducted. It’s not easy to fathom what people may be seeking when they submit a keyword or a keyword phrase. When someone searches for “pizza,”... [...]

Stela Yordanova says, “In my previous article, I discussed ways to measure and analyze website traffic, engagement and conversions. In this piece, I share seven of my favorite Google Analytics reports that help B2B marketers further analyze and understand website visitors. 1. Geographical report If you target certain regions or are running advertising campaigns in particular markets, the Geographical (Geo) report will help you analyze how users from these areas behave on your website. B2B marketers can use this data to determine advertising effectiveness and identify needed improvements (specific... [...]

Chris Silver Smith says, “If you or your company have seen something that harms your reputation abruptly appear in Google’s search results, you may be wondering how and why something negative could appear so fast, and how it gained against longer-established materials. It’s pretty simple, though: Google’s algorithm likes it better. Let me explain. First of all, Google has worked very hard to interpret user intent when searches are conducted. It’s not easy to fathom what people may be seeking when they submit a keyword or a keyword phrase. When someone searches for “pizza,”... [...]

Russell Brandom says, “Today, Google’s Threat Analysis group disclosed a critical vulnerability in Windows in a public post on the company’s security blog. The bug itself is very specific — allowing attackers to escape from security sandboxes through a flaw in the win32k system — but it’s serious enough to be categorized as critical, and according to Google, it’s being actively exploited. As a result, Google went public just 10 days after reporting the bug to Microsoft, before a patch could be coded and deployed. The result is that, while Google has already deployed a fix to... [...]

Noah Kulwin says, “Phones are very big but not all humans or human hands are very big, and that presents some problems for some people trying to navigate a phone one-handed, especially when interface elements are located near the very top of a phone’s display. This is a problem I encounter day in and out when using Chrome for Android, which places all of its controls at the top of the screen. Want to start a search or type in a web address? Top of the screen. Want to open a new tab or switch to an existing tab? Top of the screen. But that might change. Google is testing a version of Chrome... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “This afternoon Google parent Alphabet delivered a strong quarter, beating Wall Street’s revenue and earnings expectations. Revenues grew at 20 percent year over year. Net income was $6.3 billion. Total quarterly revenues were $22.25 billion (ad revenues were $19.8 billion), while so-called “other bets” generated $197 million (mostly Nest and Fiber). That was an increase vs. last year. There was also a smaller loss of $865 million on other bets compared to a year ago. Paid clicks were up an impressive 33 percent (Google website clicks were up 42 percent) however... [...]

Brian Ussery says, “With little fanfare, earlier this year Google rolled out a way to embed 360-degree VR media for headsets in search engine optimizable web pages accessible via desktop and mobile. That’s right, immersive VR videos and images for VR headsets can now be optimized for search, accessed directly from Google and experienced on desktops and mobile devices, with or without the need for a native mobile app or VR headset. (Full disclosure: I own stock in Google.) Considering Google has shipped over five million Cardboard VR headsets, and over 12 million VR headsets are expected... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Google on Monday announced a few mobile-related upgrades for Google Tag Manager. For starters, there’s news that Tag Manager now supports Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which opens up a variety of new measurement opportunities, as Google’s Ben Gram explains in the announcement: While implementing measurement solutions on AMP pages has already been possible, it can be confusing and cumbersome for folks who are new to AMP or who have tagging needs beyond tracking a basic page view. That’s why, in addition to Google Analytics, AMP containers in Tag Manager provide support... [...]

Todd Saunders says, ““OK Google, tell me how creepy things are going to get.” How would your 2006 selves respond to our advertising toolbox of today? You can target ads to people based on their income level who are also currently at the airportwith advanced geotargeting! You can follow your potential customers around with the very products they looked at but decided not to buy with dynamic remarketing. You can trigger ads to people based on what they say inside their emails with Gmail Ads. Much of what we internet users and advertisers deem as normal would have been considered creepy or... [...]