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. Facebook’s connecting you to the Metaverse
Earlier this week, Meta (Facebook) shared new insights on their work into haptic gloves that will allow users to feel and interact with digital items. This is another step towards the future of augmented and virtual reality, allowing users to touch the metaverse.
Meta explains their research into haptic gloves:
“Imagine working on a virtual 3D puzzle with a friend’s realistic 3D avatar. As you pick up a virtual puzzle piece from the table, your fingers automatically stop moving as you feel it within your grasp. You feel the sharpness of the cardboard’s edges and the smoothness of its surface as you hold it up for closer inspection, followed by a satisfying snap as you fit it into place.”
While the advancement in technology is amazing, it’s unclear how accessible the products will be to the general public. The first issue is the likely cost of the product. There is no current indication of price, however, it’s probably safe to assume that it’s not going to be cheap. Additionally, you have to assume there is a certain level of tech and knowledge required by the user – just look at the number of wires in the video above.
Right now we don’t know exactly when or how we can expect to see these haptic gloves and whether they will be available to the general public. However, it’s interesting to know that they are in the pipeline.
2. New Google Ads insights
Google announced on Thursday that it will be rolling out four new features for the Google Ads Insights page over the coming weeks.
- Consumer interest insights
- Audience insights
- Change history insights and auction insights
- Demand insights
Each new feature will provide users with a wide variety of useful insights and data to help them manage their ads campaigns moving forward. The demand insights are particularly interesting as they will allow brands to account for periods of higher or lower demand as a result of potential emerging trends. Therefore, brands will be able to plan their campaigns and inventory accordingly.
These updates come at the perfect time for many companies with the holiday season just around the corner. Check out Google’s blog for a more in-depth overview of all of the new features.
3. Twitter usage dominated by a select few
New research carried out by Pew Research finds that approximately 97% of all tweets in the US are sent from around 25% of users.
The chart above displays the fact that a small portion of Twitter users dominate the conversations on the platform, further highlighting the importance of interacting with the right users from a brand perspective. Even more interesting is the fact that of these tweets by the top 25% of users, only 14% are original posts, with 49% being retweets, and 33% being replies. Of course Twitter is intended to be a platform for conversations so it’s not overly shocking that there is a lower percentage of original tweets, but the fact that nearly 50% of tweets from the top users are retweets is rather surprising.
While of course this research is made up of US adults, it’s likely that this same trend will be noticeable across the world. The full findings are very interesting and look into average engagement, reasons for using Twitter, and much more, so be sure to check it out.
4. All I want for Christmas is…
This week Google published its annual Shopping Holiday 100, a list of the top 100 products that are predicted to be trending on Google throughout the holiday season. The list is based on query data from the past few months which is then organised into seven key categories:
- Gaming
- Health and beauty
- Fragrances
- Kitchen gear
- Sports and fitness
- Tech
- Toys and games
This data can be extremely beneficial for brands by helping them understand which products are likely to be most sought after. If you stock any of these products then now is the time to consider your inventory as a result of potentially increased demand over the holidays.
As with most things, this data is from the US, but it’s likely we will see similar results and trends in the UK.
5. Another Google Core Update
Google announced earlier this week that they will be rolling out a new broad core update with the ever catchy name – November 2021 Core Update. This update is the third core update that Google has released this year.
Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. It is called the November 2021 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates is here:https://t.co/0LAL28ueDq
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 17, 2021
The roll out began on November 17 but as with most updates, it’s likely that it could take a couple of weeks for full roll out.
As usual, Google has been typically vague with the actual details of the update, other than the fact it is happening. One thing that has been concerning a number of marketers and brands is the timing of the update. Coming just before the holiday season and Black Friday, the busiest time of the year for online shopping.
If your site is negatively impacted by the core update there isn’t a specific set of actions that you can take to recover. However, Google has shared advice and information on core updates in the past, all of which can be found here.
It’s important to keep an eye on your analytics and Google ranking data over the next couple of weeks to see if your site has been impacted by the update.