Keeping up with the digital marketing news headlines is something you can do on your own, but if you want insight analysis and commentary from industry insiders, this is the place for you! Our latest news roundup featured host Erin Sparks and Creative Studio Producer Jacob Mann along with special guest Max Yoder, Co-Founder and CEO of Lessonly. Here’s the bonus news roundup from Episode 364 of the award-winning EDGE of the Web podcast:
Google CEO Says Company’s Continued Success is Not Guaranteed
From Matt Southern on Search Engine Journal we learn that Google CEO Says Company’s Continued Success is Not Guaranteed. Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified before US Congress as part of an inquiry into the company’s market dominance.
- Erin Sparks: Sundar Pichai of Google, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook were all in the Congressional hot seat as the scrutiny of tech giants continues to ratchet up. He was right to say nothing is guaranteed, even for Google, but it sure feels that way sometimes.
- Max Yoder: I’m no anti-trust expert by any means, but I know personally I’m using Google more than ever, as well as their other products like YouTube. Yes, Google dominates but I honestly can’t say it really bothers me. Google is certainly not going anywhere in my life in terms of how I use it.
- Erin Sparks: And they’re providing a lot more tools and assistance and things to help people get things done during the pandemic. I guess one question is what does the Department of Justice (DOJ) really want to do with the companies? It appears they want to break them up so they’re not as powerful. It’s really hard to imagine that happening.
- Max Yoder: It would take a ton of political will to make that happen, and political will on all fronts seems to be lacking in Washington DC. And it is important to try to maintain competition in the marketplace, but who can really compete against Google?
Google Comments on Idea It Uses GA for Ranking Purposes
According to Roger Montti on Search Engine Journal, Google Comments on Idea It Uses GA for Ranking Purposes. Google’s John Mueller clarified several points about the hypothesis that Google uses Google Analytics data for ranking purposes.
- Erin Sparks: This is one of those SEO myths that has been popping up repeatedly for a good ten years or so. Google has always emphasized that while they use Google Analytics to understand websites, it’s anonymized data and is not linked to website rankings. They use it to understand user data in the aggregate.
- Max Yoder: It’s nice that the response wasn’t opaque or legal-speak. I respect the clarity of the communication about this one.
Snapchat Publishes New Study into Evolving Video Consumption Behaviors
On Social Media Today, Andrew Hutchinson reports: Snapchat Publishes New Study into Evolving Video Consumption Behaviors. Snapchat has published a new study that looks at evolving video consumption behaviors, particularly among younger audiences, and provides recommendations on how businesses can align their content efforts with these shifts.
- Erin Sparks: There’s a lot of data in this piece that’s worth digesting, so be sure to check out the article. Smartphone video consumption has gone from 2.5 hours a day in 2014 to more like 4.5 hours a day now, and this is mirrored by a similar decline in consuming video content via desktop computers. That’s an impressive statistic.
- Max Yoder: More than four hours a day? That’s a lot. I certainly don’t watch that much, and when I do watch online videos, it tends to be on YouTube where I’ve found a curated group of thinkers and content creators I appreciate, and I value the personal ability I have to jump from one to the next as I see fit. If you remember the days of pixelated videos on smartphones, those days weren’t that long ago, so the technology has come a long way, and YouTube has a lot of quality content on it. But the average watch time is enormous, and it’s been such a sharp increase in recent years.
- Erin Sparks: And of course the COVID-19 pandemic has increased not only on the number of people watching video content on smartphones but has also increased average watch time as well. All the stats about the topics of what people are watching is very interesting to study.
Connect with Max Yoder, Co-Founder and CEO of Lessonly
Twitter: @MaxYoder (https://twitter.com/maxyoder)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxyoder
Max’s posts on Lessonly: https://www.lessonly.com/blog/author/lessonly
Max’s book: Do Better Work: Finding clarity, camaraderie, and progress in work and life
Lessonly Twitter: @lessonly (https://twitter.com/lessonly)
Lessonly Facebook: @lessonlyapp (https://www.facebook.com/lessonlyapp)
Lessonly website: https://www.lessonly.com
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