Google announced that it will be making the new Google Search Console available to everyone in the coming weeks. Specifically, verified users in Google Search Console will be able to access the new Search Performance, Index Coverage, AMP status and Job posting reports. The new Search Console reports provide “more transparency into Google’s indexing, stateful two-way communications between Google and website owners to help resolve issues faster, and a responsive user-interface.” [Source: Search Engine Land]
Facebook could soon become a more prominent presence in your everyday life, with reports suggesting that The Social Network’s looking to launch a new voice-activated, video calling device which you could place in your home, keeping you linked into the platform at all times. The new device is to be called ‘Portal’, and will compete with existing home speaker-type devices already gaining momentum – most notably the Amazon Echo Show. [Source: Social Media Today]
Google AdSense has announced two new Experiments features to give publishers a deeper understanding of how certain factors affect their users and advertising earnings. The two new features are ‘Ad Session Length’ and ‘Ad Balance Tool’. [Source: Marketing Land]
Facebook is shuttering its digital assistant, “M.” At the same time, the company is preparing to launch its rumored touch-screen video device named “Portal.” It will compete with Echo Show and Google-powered new “smart displays.” [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
Google announced that the PageSpeed Insights tool has been updated to use data from the Chrome user experience report, which means the tool is using metrics from “real-world Chrome users who experience popular destinations on the web.” The pagespeed tool now shows you how fast your pages load based on real user data, which is an important metric for user satisfaction. [Source: Search Engine Land]
In an effort to up its signal to noise ratio, Facebook may go local. The company is testing a new area of its app called “Today In,” a mix of city-specific events, announcements and local news. [Source: TechCrunch]
This week, an AI company called Recognant has released an extension for Chrome that informs users if the news they are viewing on the browser is fake. The AI tool is said to have a function which tests the ‘trustworthiness’ of an article or a story. [Source: Logicserve Digital]
If Google’s gigantic “Hey Google” CES 2018 booth hasn’t convinced you that it is deadly serious about stopping Alexa’s path toward owning the smart speaker space, how about this: it’s announcing that the following companies are making speakers that include the Assistant: Altec Lansing, Anker Innovations, Bang & Olufsen, Braven, iHome, JBL, Jensen, LG, Lenovo, Klipsch, Knit Audio, Memorex, RIVA Audio, SōLIS, and Sony. Four of those names in particular are more interesting — JBL, Lenovo, LG, and Sony — because they’re producing Google Assistant speakers with something new: a screen. Google says these speakers will be available in the summer. [Source: The Verge]
The Social Network, Facebook, has confirmed that they’ll be making concerted moves to show users more posts from people they know – and fewer posts from Pages. The aim of these changes is to ensure that the time people spend on Facebook is ‘well spent’. [Source: Social Media Today]
Google has announced that Review extensions will stop showing this month and will be deleted entirely in AdWords accounts in February. Advertisers that ran Review extensions and want to keep their historical data will need to export it in AdWords this month. That data can be found in both the new and old AdWords interfaces. [Source: Search Engine Land]
