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 Microsoft, Google, Meta & many more!
Twitter has announced that it will soon offer a cheaper verification package for small businesses
In the latest update in Twitter’s verification saga, Musk has announced a new lower prices tier for small businesses - stating that the initial $1000 per month tier was always intended for larger organisations. Musk added that Twitter will first need to manage how to set this up in a way that prevents fraud. A lower priced tier will certainly make verifications a lot more affordable for smaller businesses, though many suspect this change is due to an initial lack of take-up to the original, pricey tier.
OpenAI has rolled out a web browser beta and 70 new plug-ins for ChatGPT Plus users
OpenAI has revealed the latest version of ChatGPT, including a beta rollout of web browsing and 70 new plug-ins for ChatGPT Plus users. These plug-ins will bring a wealth of new possibilities to the chats applications, from entertainment to shopping, job searches and weather forecasts. Early access to experimental features such as these can be found in the user settings within the beta features panel.
TikTok has launched a new hub to help brands connect with its audiences and aid discovery
TikTok has announced that it has launched a new ‘TikTok World Hub’ designed to help brands learn how to connect with audiences and get discovered. The hub outlines the platform’s suite of advertising tools and best practices - with informational videos focusing on branding, commerce, performance and creative. With videos for top creators, and tools to help educate brands on TikTok advertising.
Pinterest is combining Pins and Idea Pins to give all users access to its creation features
Pinterest is introducing an easier way to create pins by combining all of its creation features into a single stream, with functionality that was initially reserved for certain pin formats. As Pinterest explains, “Pinterest users will now be able to access features that were previously only available to certain Pin formats or users with a business account, including links, post-publish editing, and flexible aspect ratios. All content creators will also be able to include expressive features like music, text overlay and stickers to their Pins”.
Meta’s AI Sandbox will soon give advertisers access to Meta’s generative AI tools
Meta has introduced the AI Sandbox, which will soon let advertisers generate text and background images, as well as adjust the sizes of creative assets. Firstly, the text variation feature will suggest several ad copy variations to test. The background generation tool will let advertisers use text prompts to describe the background appearance or style that they want - giving them the ability to test various images and their impact on performance. Finally, the image outcropping tool will let advertisers adjust their assets to fit different aspect ratios across Facebook and Instagram services. These tools are believed to be rolling out in July.
Google has rolled out Related Topics filter on desktop Search results
Google is now rolling out the Related Topics search filter feature on desktop, having launched on mobile last December. These filters help users refine their search with a list of popular topics to add into their search search queries. According to Google, both topics and filters are shown in the order that the systems automatically determine is most helpful for your specific query. If you do not see a particular filter you want, you can find more by using the ‘All filters’ option now available at the end of the row.
YouTube tests restricting content for viewers using ad-blocking tools
YouTube is currently running an experiment that blocks users from watching in-app content while ad-blocking apps are active in their browsers. The popup requires users to instead ‘allow YouTube ads’ or to ‘try YouTube Premium’, the platform's ad-free subscription program that costs £11.99 per month. This is likely a bid to push YouTube Premium, which currently has over 80 million users, and the platform has stated that it plans to invest more into its subscription offerings in 2023.
Microsoft announces new features on Bing Chat including images within answers and optimised knowledge answers
Microsoft has been busy adding a whole new range of features to its AI chatbot, Bing Chat including images within knowledge cards, optimised knowledge answers and more. Firstly, Bing Chat is getting more visual with images within knowledge cards. Also, new optimised answers show users answers related to shopping, weather, finance, jobs and recipes - even allowing users to compare different products results in a more visual manner. And finally, Bing Chat now allows users to export answers to PDF, text file or Microsoft Word.
TikTok has announced a new partnership with Smartly.io to facilitate video shopping ad creation
TikTok’s marketing Partners program has announced a new video shopping ads speciality by partnering with Smartly.io, a creative and campaign management partner. TikTok explains, “After months of product optimisations and collaborations with TikTok, Smartly.io’s video shopping ads offering is now available for all commerce and retail advertisers to use in their TikTok campaigns. These solutions will allow advertisers to have access to automated workflows that help them to scale, optimise and test ads that drive results”.
Google is set to update its helpful content system algorithm in the coming months
Google has revealed that it will roll out a new update for its helpful content system in the coming months. According to the company, this update will allow Google Search to “more deeply understand content created from a personal or expert point of view”. In this update, Google is improving how they rank results in Search overall, with a greater focus on content with unique expertise and experiences.
TikTok has launched a new in-app music hub to highlight trending artists
As a platform known for helping unknown artists go viral overnight, TikTok has launched a #NewMusic search hub within its app, to help users discover the latest tracks from popular artists. As explained by TikTok, “Our #NewMusic search hub is a dedicated space for artists around the world to showcase their new songs and for fans to discover their next favourite track. The #NewMusic hub will act as a destination for new music, highlighting new releases and making it easier for fans to discover the latest tracks from both new and established artists”.
Google has ended the waitlist for its AI Chatbot, Bard, and unveiled several new features
At Google's I/O developer conference, the company announced that it is removing the waitlist restrictions to make the Bard more widely available. On top of this, Google announced several updates to the Bard including making answers more visual with multimodal content, adding content from Google Maps, support for Google Lens, and expanding the languages it is available in. In Addition, Google also announced a new dark mode for Bard, and greater coding support.
TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance, has filed a trademark application for a range of book publishing services
Having recently pushed its new lifestyle social media platform, Lemon8, it appears Tiktok’s parent company, Bytedance, now has its eyes on the book publishing market. Lemon Inc., a subsidiary of Bytedance, has reportedly submitted a trademark application for a range of book publishing products and services registered under the name ‘8TH NOTE PRESS. The list of registered services include an app to read, download, and discuss fiction e-books in an online community; retail bookstore services; ordering books; publishing books as well as providing online, non-downloadable books.
Meta has announced that it is testing revenue sharing for more Reels Creators
Meta has announced that it is testing a new way to pay creators for the ads that they help get views, by giving them a cut of their ad revenue. YouTube has been successfully paying YouTubers via revenue sharing for some time now, even introducing the model to their short-form content, YouTube Shorts. Meta is now inviting ‘thousands more creators’ and advertisers to join its updated tests - which will include a payout model that pays creators based on the performance of their public Reels, rather than the earning of ads on them.
Google Perspectives will integrate key opinions from Reddit, YouTube, TikTok and more in Search Results
Google has announced a new ‘Perspectives’ filter that will appear at the top of certain search results that ‘ would benefit from others' experiences’. This panel will feature posts from discussion boards, Q&A sites and social media platforms such as Reddit, YouTube and TikTok. In addition, Google also added that more details about the content creators informing these perspectives will also be shown, including their name, profile pic, and information about the popularity of their content.
