Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.
This week’s My Five is by Will.
1. Twitter Communities is here
Earlier this week Twitter announced a live test of it’s new ‘Communities’ feature which allows you to share tweets with a select group of users. This moves away from the traditional idea that your tweets are shared publicly to all of your followers and allows users to be more specific with who can see what.
imagine an alternate timeline where everyone just gets you
say hi to Communities—the place to connect with people who Tweet like you. testing now on iOS and web, Android soon! pic.twitter.com/TJdKwUa4D2
— Communities (@HiCommunities) September 8, 2021
This new feature allows users to share tweets in dedicated spaces or ‘communities’ who have a shared interest with the intention of driving more focused interactions. As explained by Twitter:
“Twitter Communities were created to give people a dedicated place to connect, share, and get closer to the discussions they care about most.”
One thing that is important for users to note is that Communities aren’t private, anyone can read the discussions in communities, however, only select users can respond and join the conversation.
Check out Twitter’s full blog post for more information on Communities including how to create or join a community as well as important information for members.
2. Facebook’s Topics to Watch
Towards the end of last week Facebook released their Topics to Watch report that shines a light on the rising topics of conversation on Facebook and Instagram. The report does focus on the US specifically, however, it still provides useful information on what topics are trending over the past quarter.
The main theme of conversation from Q2 of 2021 was reunions with the world slowly opening back and up and returning to normal. Wedding receptions and family reunions were two of the fastest growing topics from the past few months. With weddings postponed, and families not being able to see each other for a long period of time it’s hardly surprising that users are celebrating the opportunity to reunite with their friends and family.
Two of the other other top topics point to the fact that the world is slowly recovering from the pandemic with ‘pet sitting’ and ‘car rental’ rising in popularity. Pandemic pets took over the world with everyone making the most of the prolonged period in their own home. Now as we return to the workplace it’s time for your furry friend to get used to you not being around all the time. When it comes to car rentals this points to the fact that we are finally allowed to explore the world again, whether that be for work or leisure.
Unsurprisingly, most of the trending topics are based around the pandemic, however it’s finally about how to move on and not about how we live through it. Check out the full Trends to Watch report here.
3. The impact of Google’s Core Web sitals update on eCommerce sites
In June of this year Google released its search algorithm update focused on Core Web Vitals. This specific update focused on various experience related factors such as page load times and responsiveness. As a result sites would have seen shifts in their search rankings depending on their performance for these Core Web Vitals.
While we know that these factors will impact your SEO performance it’s difficult to understand the exact impact and whether your site could be doing more. We of course use Google’s Core Web Vitals report to get an idea of how your site performs for these measurements. However, for sites that use website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify they have less control over certain aspects of the development which makes it difficult to optimise for Google’s Core Web Vitals.
Thankfully, towards the start of this week WebsiteBuilderExpert released a guide that helps site owners get an understanding of how various eCommerce platforms perform following the new update. They analysed over 3,000 URLs on desktop and mobile to understand how each platform performs.
You can find the full report here.
4. Facebook introduce Ray-Ban Stories
This week Facebook launched Ray-Ban stories, a new pair of smart glasses that allow users to take photos and videos in a unique way. Taking clear inspiration from Snapchat’s Spectacles, the new product from Facebook and Ray Ban let users capture photos and videos from a first-person perspective.
We’ve all been there, trying so hard to take a photo or video to remember a moment that you actually forget to enjoy what’s happening right in front of you. These new glasses will let you capture the moment, while still being present and living it. Simply use the capture button or Facebook voice commands and start capturing the world around you.
In addition to being able to take photos and videos the glasses also allow you to listen to music or take phone calls through the built in microphones and speakers.
Check out the video below for everything you need to know:
5. Driving the binmen barking mad
Would it even be a My Five if we didn’t include a dog to help brighten your day?
This week’s smiles come in the form of two super excitable Vizslas waiting for their best friend.. the binman.
@vizslaralphHe’s teasing us today. ? #monday #binmen #tease #fyp #foryoupage? How Bizarre – OMC
We have a soft spot for Vizslas at Browser Media!
