Welcome to ‘What Happened in Search’.
Packed full of the week’s digital search news each Friday, this week we’re talking about mobilegeddon’s failure to live up to its hype, Applebot, news from Inside AdWords and Facebook’s native ads.
ALL MOUTH?
In spite of the hype around Google’s mobile algorithm update, and claims that ‘mobilegeddon’ would be more impactful than Panda and Penguin, the industry has seen little ramification as a result.
There have, however, been some consequences for rankings, some of which can be seen in the article linked below, and the difference between mobile and desktop rankings has never differed so greatly.
It is believed that the underwhelming results of the roll out are partly due to the rise in mobile friendly sites prior to the update – during March and April, there was a 4.7% increase.
Google has also stated this week that the algorithm is now fully rolled out, so it’s likely that there will be further effects to come.
INSIDE ADWORDS
For the first time, Google has stated that mobile searches have overtaken desktop in 10 countries. That news set the backdrop for the second-annual Inside AdWords event, during which the company announced a number of new product updates.
“We’ve hit an inflection point… We think it’s a real turning point in digital advertising and we have been investing in mobile-focused initiatives”, said Jerry Dischler, VP of Product Management for AdWords.
APPLEBOT CONFIRMED
Apple and Google seemingly compete in almost every area, with smartphones, mapping, operating systems, web browsers and more offered up by each company, but as yet Apple hasn’t tried to take on Google’s search engine.
It might have plans to though, as for the first time it’s confirmed owning a web crawler. A new page added to its support site details the web crawler, which has been dubbed ‘Applebot’.
AD WATCH
Facebook hasn’t launched an official Apple Watch app, but the company considers the device — and smartwatches, in general — an opportunity to show advertising to consumers.
Dave Jakubowski, the head of ad technology at Facebook, told the Collision Conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday that smart watches are “absolutely” an advertising opportunity and said that the real challenge will be in developing an ad format that works for this environment.
NATIVE ADS UPGRADE
Just over a year ago, Facebook launched “Audience Network”, a mobile ad network that helped extend marketers’ reach outside of Facebook. One of the unique ad options offered was a native ads API for both iOS and Android devices.
Today, native ads are getting a big boost with the release of new templates, a native ad manager and the addition of horizontal scrolling.