Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Your Midweek Roundup
Bonded Bitesize – Bringing you your midweek roundup of the latest in digital and media.
Stay connected with recent updates from ChatGPT, Google, Meta & many more!
TikTok has added new targeting and boosting features to its Promote tool to enhance organic content reach
First launched in 2021 as a way for creators to turn their videos into ads, TikTok’s ‘Promote’ feature has now been updated to help creators boost their organic content more effectively. The new features will help advertisers to drive traffic back to their TikTok pages (rather than just websites), as well as expand their audience targeting ability to include location, gender, age and interests. The new Promote campaigns will also give brands the ability to receive more messages from potential customers as well as boost the content of other creators that they are working with.
Google’s AI powered ‘multisearch’ which combines text and images in a single query, is now available globally
First introduced last April, Google’s new ‘multisearch’ feature is now available to global users on mobile devices - anywhere that Google Lens is available. The feature allows users to search using a combination of both text and images at the same time. A variation of this - ‘multisearch near me’ - will become globally available over the next few months, which targets searches to local businesses. Multisearch for the web, and a news lens feature for android users will also be available over the next few months.
Microsoft has launched the ‘new Bing’ powered by an upgraded version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT
Microsoft has announced a new version of its search engine, Bing, that is powered by an upgraded version of OpenAIs ChatGPT. The conversational AI is designed to create a new way to browse the web, with users able to ask long, complex questions to Bing. Unlike ChatGPT, the ‘new Bing’ can retrieve news about recent events, citing news stories published within the last hour. Whilst the new Bing is available now, it is still somewhat limited, with a waitlist for the full experience.
Pinterest has reached 450 million monthly users and says it is focusing on making videos shoppable
During its latest earnings call, Pinterest has revealed it now boasts 450 million monthly active users globally, a 4% jump year-on-year. According to the platform, this is mainly down to growth outside of the US and Canada - where the user base stayed relatively similar at 95 million. Pinterest stated that it aims to increase engagement and enhance advertiser outcomes through shoppability, along with enhancing monetisation per user and streamlining operations. “Over the long term”, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready states, “we also want to make every pin shoppable”, explaining that the platform is deploying computer-vision technology to make their videos more shoppable.
Twitter is introducing 4000 character Tweets to Twitter Blue members in US and says half ads are coming soon
Twitter has announced that US members of its premium tier, Twitter Blue, can now break free from their 280 character constraints and now have a lengthy 4000 characters to play with. These longer Tweets will eliminate the need for threads and will be able to be seen by all users with or without Twitter Blue. Tweets will be capped at 280 characters still on users timelines, but a ‘show more’ prompt will reveal the whole Tweet. The platform also stated that ads shown to subscribers will soon be halved - with Musk previously mentioning a costlier ad-free subscription plan.
ITV is launching a two-day mental health conference for media and communications industry
ITV has announced it will be holding ‘The Mental Health in the Media’ conference, designed in partnership with a number of different mental health charities including Mind and CALM. Taking place on the 14th and 15th of March, the conference will bring together creative and mental health leaders to further understanding around mental health and inspire progress both on and off screen.
Microsoft has added several new products and features to its Ads offering including expansion to new markets, data exclusions & in-market audience segments
Microsoft Advertising has announced it is expanding into 34 additional markets, bringing its total number of markets served globally up to 164. Also, the Enhanced Cost Per Click (CPC) option, as well as the last-touch attribution feature, are both now accessible in all markets of the Microsoft Audience Network. All automated bidding strategies now come with data exclusions and there are also new in-market audience segments and a pilot for custom combinations. Conversion tracking has several enhancements and finally Google Import for Smart Campaigns is now available in 11 new markets. Read the full announcement here.
WhatsApp is now letting users put voice noes as their status updates due to surge of voice messages sent on the platform
Introduced in 2017 as a take on Snapchat Stories, WhatsApp status’ are 24 hour disappearing status updates. The new update means that new users can now upload voice notes to their status updates as well as reactions and link previews. This update comes as Meta recorded significant traction in voice messages on the platform - with the company claiming that 7 billion voice messages were sent daily last year.
Facebook has rolled out new comment moderation tools to help creators manage conversations on the platform
Facebook has announced that it is introducing more comment moderation tools and controls that will make it easier for creators to manage conversations on the platform. The new tools will allow creators to search their comments for keywords (including emojis), commenter names and dates and take bulk actions such as liking or hiding comments. These new tools will be available through the comments manager section in Facebook’s Professional Dashboard.
Google Maps has launched Immersive View in 5 cities, as well as new features for electric vehicles
Google Maps has rolled out Immersive View in London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Tokyo. The new feature fuses billions of street views and aerial images to create a digital model of the world - also providing information such as the weather, traffic and how busy a location may be. The company also announced a new feature called ‘glanceable directions’ which will be rolled out in the coming months that lets users track their route from their lock screens. Finally, Google is rolling out new features for electric vehicles with Google Maps built in. These features will make it easier to find nearby charging stations and show how much energy a journey is likely to consume.
Instagram is testing new Memories prompts to encourage users to reshare their old posts
Instagram appears to be testing out a ‘Memory’ story prompt very similar to Snapchats longstanding Memory feature. The new feature encourages users to reshare previous stories from their archive, likely in a bid to increase engagement with the platform. Back in 2015, Facebook also allowed users to reshare content with their ‘On this day’ prompts which did manage to spark engagement, however it shifted the platform as a place to see the latest trends and updates to one that became more focused on family and friends. We’ll have to wait and see if the same happens to Instagram.
YouTube’s Partner Program now allows Shorts creators with over 1000 subscribers to monetise their content
Creators of YouTube Shorts are now able to join YouTube’s Partner Program and earn 45% of the revenue created from their Shorts. To be eligible creators must have over 1000 subscribers and meet certain view requirements. The ad revenue-sharing model for Shorts is different to traditional longer-form video content in that revenue from ads shown in between creators Shorts are pooled into a ‘Creator Pool’.
Chinese ecommerce giant, Alibaba, is working on its own AI chatbot to rival Microsoft-backed OpenAIs ChatGPT
Chinese ecommerce giant, Alibaba, has confirmed that it is currently working on its own AI chatbot to rival Microsoft-backed, OpenAIs ChatGPT. These AI chatbots are all the craze at the moment, with Google launching its own model, Google Bard, earlier this month, and Microsoft has integrated ChatGPT into its search engine and Microsoft Teams. This news comes just days after Chinese tech giant, Baidu, said it would complete testing of its own AI chatbot in March.
Instagram is expanding access to Reels tipping feature ‘Gifts’ to more US creators to further monetise the platform
Instagram has announced that it is expanding access to its monetisation feature, Gifts, that allows users to send monetary support to their favourite creators in the form of themed virtual gifts. The addition of gifts will likely help Instagram compete better with rivals like TikTok, where virtual gifts are already available - as well as providing Instagram with a cut of the new revenue stream.
Google has improved its contextual translation features so that words with multiple meaning can be translated better
At its Live from Paris event, Google has announced a host of new translation-related features including improved contextual search, a redesigned iOS app and a seamless AR translation feature through Google Lens. The search giant has improved contextual translation in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, meaning that words with multiple meanings will be translated based on the context of the text.
