Welcome to ‘What Happened in Search’.
Packed full of the week’s digital search news each Friday, today we feature Apple Maps’ update, AdWords competitor tracking and YouTube’s ad-free subscription.
APPLE MAPS BULKS UP
Apple Maps still doesn’t have nearly as many features as Google Maps, nor is it as well respected. While the latter may simply be out of the question in the short term, at least its hotel reviews will soon no longer be restricted to Yelp alone.
Apple Maps now seems to be returning reviews from TripAdvisor and Booking.com, according to a tip received by AppleInsider.
So far, only specific searches are returning results from TripAdvisor and Booking.com, with Yelp continuing to provide the lion’s share of results.
YOUTUBE GOES AD-FREE
A paid subscription service from YouTube appears to be just around the corner.
The Verge reported that YouTube will soon be launching an ad-free video subscription service, priced at approximately $10 per month. The package will also allow subscribers to store videos offline.
TWITTER SPAM
According to a new study by Networked Insights and Fast Company, 9.3% of Twitter is comprised of spam.
Unfortunately, the biggest recipients of this spam are brand messages. According to the report, posts that include coupon-related content make up 5.8% of all discussion.
TRACK THE COMPETITION
When it comes to AdWords, competitors determine what we actually need to pay and where ads will be positioned.
Former Googler Daniel Gilbert demonstrates how to turn the static AdWords Auction Insights data into a report that tracks your closest competitors over time.
PENGUIN & PANDA DATA UPDATES
There have been no confirmed updates or data refreshes for Google’s Penguin and Panda algorithms since 2014. Without a data refresh, sites impacted negatively by the algorithms cannot fully recover.
This week, Google told Search Engine Land that the data updates are currently performed manually.
