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 Ashleigh.
1.Elon Musk buys Twitter
Unless you have been living off-grid for the past couple of days, you’ve probably heard that Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s rather sizable bid of $44 billion to buy the social media platform.
Let’s make Twitter maximum fun!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2022
This is something that Joe speculated just last week, but it has now been confirmed that Musk is the new owner of Twitter.
It will be interesting to see what changes he makes to the platform. Will he change it from earning revenue from advertising, in favour of a subscription model or a combination of both?
Will he be forced to do that because advertisers are going to abandon using the platform in order to protect themselves, as they “don’t want their brands near controversial content”, like Sir Martin Sorrell, has predicted?
And what will the impact be on Musk’s other brands, as Telsa shares have already taken a hit? We’ll just have to wait and see.
If you want to know more about our MD, Joe’s thoughts on the matter, read this: https://browsermedia.agency/blog/the-free-speech-absolutist/
2. Google is making changes to tracking in the EU
After receiving a whopping fine of $163 million earlier this year, Google has redesigned its policy to allow people in Europe to reject all cookies and avoid being tracked whilst browsing online.
The first country to see the changes go live is France, with the redesign being applied to YouTube there and then it’ll be rolled out across all services in the EU countries and also non-EU ones, Switzerland and the UK.
3. Google allows users to reduce the number of ads they see in 3 more categories
Back in 2020 Google launched new user controls, allowing them to limit the number of gambling and alcohol ads they saw on YouTube.
This week it has announced that users will now have the option to also limit ads, on YouTube and the Google Display Network, of the following types:
- Pregnancy
- Parenting
- Dating
- Weight loss
You can opt-in to see less (not none, just fewer) of these types of ads by visiting the Ad Settings, under the Google Account dashboard:
These sensitive categories could be the first few in a line of many types being added here, and could hopefully help advertisers and users alike. If people know about this feature and choose to opt-in to see fewer ads in any given subject, they’d be unlikely to convert anyway, so it’s better that their not shown the ad(s) in the first place.
4. Are we finally going to find out how Google’s algorithm works?
Due to the new Digital Services Act (DSA), which was negotiated and finalised on Friday last week, the big tech giants (Google, Meta etc) will have to start being more transparent about their infamous algorithms.
Thierry Breton, who is the commissioner for the internal market said:
Yes, we have a deal!
With the #DSA, the time of big online platforms behaving like they are “too big to care” is coming to an end.
A major milestone for ??citizens.
Congratulations to the European Parliament & Council and thank you to the great EU team working countless hours! pic.twitter.com/jmCoZMQ3lO
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) April 23, 2022
“It gives practical effect to the principle that what is illegal offline, should be illegal online. The greater the size, the greater the responsibilities of online platforms,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission.
The intricate details are yet to be announced on this one but it means that the likes of Google and Meta (Facebook & Instagram) will have to open up about their algorithms, for the world to scrutinise.
There may also be a bit in it that forces the tech giants to offer alternative feeds, which could see chronological feeds returning, like Instagram has already done.
5. Guild launch new online community glossary
Our client, Professional B2B community platform, Guild, has launched the ultimate online community glossary. With over 100 community terms and acronyms defined, it’s a really useful resource regardless of your level of experience in this area.
Just like any area of marketing, there is a lot of industry terminology and jargon around communities, but this glossary covers all bases, from terms around community roles, or performance metrics, to language around engagement techniques.
It’s definitely one to bookmark, whether you’re managing a community yourself, or just a member of one! Take a look.
