With new ‘pilot program,’ Google again testing ads on local business profiles
The ads can't be removed or influenced by the business owner....
Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.
CCPA enforcement begins now and most companies aren’t ready
Unprepared for CCPA? Here is what you need to know and do -- now....
Usage of voice has plateaued — for now
Compared with past growth, 2020 survey data show flat-to-declining usage....
TripAdvisor, Yelp and others highlight venue safety, an emerging consumer decision factor
Cautious consumers want more information about COVID-19 precautions....
Google positioned to dominate the ‘O2O economy’
Online-to-offline: Nearly $12 trillion in offline economic activity is likely impacted by the internet....
Updated: The brands boycotting Facebook and Zuckerberg’s response
Coke, Honda, Verizon, Starbucks, Unilever, Pepsi and numerous others are pausing social media and backing Stop Hate for Profit....
CPG giant Unilever announces no more Facebook, Twitter ads through 2020
We have entered an entirely new and higher stakes era of digital activism....
‘Stop Hate’ Facebook advertiser boycott gains momentum as Verizon joins
Patagonia, North Face, Ben & Jerry’s and others have pledged to pull ads in July....
Google will now auto-delete your location history after 18 months
The update is part of a number of new privacy changes being implemented....
Google upgrades enterprise messaging capabilities in Maps and Search
Enhanced features include smart replies, visual product carousels, custom welcome...
Google agrees to start paying for news content
Germany, Australia and Brazil are the first three countries, with more coming....
Google to shutter CallJoy, virtual agent for SMBs, on July 22
Call intelligence service was another Area 120 project....
The need for (mobile) speed: Small improvements have a big conversion impact
A 0.1 second site speed boost increased retail AOV by almost 10%, Deloitte study...
The Google Assistant may start calling businesses to confirm in-stock inventory
Google is expanding the use cases of its 'Duplex' AI...
Google to see first U.S. revenue decline, including paid search, says forecaster
Google is predicted to see a 7% drop in paid-search revenue, driven primarily by a loss of travel ad spending....
Google launches Keen, a new personalized search-discovery-social mashup
Seen as a Pinterest competitor, it's something potentially broader and even older....
Former Google ad boss Ramaswamy to launch new search engine Neeva
Neeva will be subscription based and won't have advertising....
Nextdoor rolls out free Business Posts, best practices advice
Nextdoor is slowly building out a suite of paid and free promotional tools for national-local brands and SMBs....
Yelp offers upgraded COVID reopening tools for local businesses, restaurants
The company is also modifying Waitlist to help restaurants to better manage capacity during mandatory social distancing....
Local SEOs most focused on link building and content development, report finds
80% of survey respondents said they were also buying (local) ads on Google....