All Script And Tols For Free: 🔍 What if Apple is eyeing search?

Aug 28, 2020

Good morning Search Marketer, it feels good to be back.

After taking a true break away from news and social media, I'm feeling refreshed and happy to be back in the swing of things. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and I am feeling truly grateful for this community. I missed you.

I will admit to keeping my eye on the TikTok sale saga. It's looking like a deal is closer — minus a CEO — with either Microsoft (+ Walmart) or Oracle. "The way TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets is a clear benefit to creators and users in those markets," a Walmart spokesperson told CNBC. TikTok's ad business has been growing, but a Microsoft/Walmart deal (for the U.S., Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations) could help shake up the retail media landscape in some interesting ways.

Another potential for shake up? Apple's possible entry into the search engine market. There are now several indicators that the company may be pursuing its own search engine. It's all speculative now, but certainly interesting to consider the implications. For one, "it's quite possible that Apple could become the number two mobile search engine. Safari is the most popular mobile browser in the U.S.; Chrome is second. Yet it's unclear how extensive or far reaching Apple's search ambitions are. The search development here may be focused on Spotlight Search and not extend to Safari," reports Greg Sterling.

And COVID has proved the ultimate shake up. Consumer behavior continues to shift and vary by region. Google and Apple both offer mobility insights showing how movements are trending that can provide insights for marketers. Google's COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports show movement trends by region — down to the county level when data is available — for six categories: retail & recreation, grocery & pharmacy, parks, transit stations, workplaces and residential.

Keep reading for your daily Search Shorts and a look at Facebook's latest VR efforts.

Ginny Marvin
Editor-In-Chief

Indicators

Sitemaps, images and "understanding".

XML Sitemaps. Fabrice Canal from Bing said that you really should include your main pages, "your main rankings" pages in your XML Sitemaps.

WebP vs JPEG images. Here is what John Mueller of Google said on those image formats. "I think the primary difference you'd see is with regards to bandwidth needed for crawling (and probably that wouldn't be too massive unless it's a very image-heavy site, like Kevin mentioned). You shouldn't see any difference with regards to user-facing SEO."

Bots understanding your pages. Does Google fully need to understand your page? Mueller said, "We don't have to 'understand' everything on a page, and even when we do 'understand' some things, it's more like being able to recognize 'oh, it's about a bike' rather than 'ah, this is an ode to a finely layered carbon frame, clean cabling, and with anecdotes about durability.'"

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Social Shorts

Facebook's social VR effort takes step forward

Facebook Horizon's beta waitlist is starting to open up, the company announced yesterday. Oculus' VR social "experience" allows users to build and visit virtual worlds. It's available on Oculs Quest and the Rift Platform in the U.S. and Canada at this time. Currently, up to eight people can share a virtual space in Horizon. Users join a Party and chat as they explore Horizon. Facebook is also instituting safety measures, including a Safe Zone users can access through the wrist menu from which they can mute, block or report people and content.

Why we care. Virtual reality is still far from mainstream and its potential for marketers remains limited. However, Horizon represents Facebook's most ambitious — and potentially successful — effort to make virtual reality social since it bought Oculus VR more than six years ago. And as Engaget's Devindra Hardawar noted, "Horizon may have a genuine purpose" in a time of social distancing.

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