News came out this week about a new job search service called “Google Hire.” A report came out announcing the internet giant will soon be building an ad blocker into its very own Chrome browser. More YouTube channels than ever are now able to launch live streams.
Google is bringing a previously Android-exclusive feature to Google Maps on iOS for the first time. Google My Business is now capable of reporting on returning customers. Lastly, Google released its annual webspam report with details on how the company fought spam in 2016.
More details about each of these top stories are included in this week’s SEO & SEM news roundup.
Google Preparing to Launch Google Hire
Google is preparing to launch a new jobs service, which is evident by the sign-up page that can be found here. While the company hasn’t officially announced the service yet, details are already coming out.
At its core, “Google Hire” will be a place where employers will be able to place ads for job listings which job seekers could then apply for. Google Hire will also act as a recruiting tool where employers can manage multiple job applications.
Everything beyond the home page is currently locked out at the moment. Even if you try to sign in with your Google account, the service won’t let you.
Having to sign in with your Google account has led to some concern that employers will have access to too much information about applicants, such as an applicant’s entire search history. However, that has been confirmed to be false.
A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Journal:
“Google Hire is a product under development that will help G Suite customers manage their hiring process more effectively. The product will allow employers to collect candidate applications online. Only information that a candidate voluntarily provides would be passed to a prospective employer as part of their online application. Private information will not be shared.”
No information was provided regarding when Google Hire is expected to launch.
Google Chrome Ad Blocker
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google is working on a unique type of ad blocker for the Chrome browser. Google is working on adding a feature to Chrome which would block “bad ads” by default.
That means certain ads would go through and be shown as usual, while ads that provide a “poor experience” would be filtered out. According to the WSJ article, this is what would be considered a bad ad type:
“Unacceptable ad types would be those recently defined by the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry group that released a list of ad standards in March. According to those standards, ad formats such as pop-ups, auto-playing video ads with sound and “prestitial” ads with countdown timers are deemed to be “beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability.”
According to the WSJ, Google is considering blocking all ads on a site if even one “bad ad” is detected. If that ends up being the case, then all ads on a site must abide by the recently released ad standards or all ads will end up getting blocked.
Google is reportedly building its own ad blocker because it is concerned about the growth of the third-party ad blocker market. Google wants to have more control over the state of ad blocking, and is thus working on releasing its own ad blocker.
No further information is available at this time.
YouTube Allows for More Live Streamers
Google has significantly reduced the requirements which must be met for users to initiate live streams from their YouTube channels. Back in February, when live streaming on YouTube was first introduced, channels were required to have at least 10,000 subscribers before being able to live stream.
Now, channels are required to have no more than 1,000 subscribers if they want to initiate a live stream. YouTube channels must also be verified must not have had any live stream restrictions in the past 90 days.
Live streams can be initiated from the YouTube app on any mobile device by following these steps:
- Select the camera button.
- Grant permissions for the YouTube app to access the Camera, Mic, and Storage.
- If prompted verify your channel.
- Select GO LIVE.
Google Brings “Your Timeline” to Google Maps on iOS
Google is bringing “Your Timeline”, a feature that was previously exclusive to Android, to Google Maps on iOS for the first time. With the latest version of the app it can now be accessed from the navigation menu on the left-hand side.
“Your Timeline” is essentially a searchable history of your life. While your phone is with you, Google Maps will keep track of where you go and log the information into Your Timeline. You can then look back on this history if you need to retrace your steps, or remember the name of that great cafe you popped into, and so on.
Information within Your Timeline can be edited if there are any inaccuracies. At the end of the month, Google will send out a recap of all the places you’ve visited in the past 30 days.
Google My Business Reports on Returning Customers
Some users are getting access to new reporting insights within Google My Business. It seems that GMB is now reporting on the amount of returning customers to a business. In addition, it has also started reporting on the most popular times of a business.
This was first spotted, and shared on Google+, by Evan Older of the Local Search Pros community.
While the “Popular times” data looks like the chart we’re used to seeing in the Knowledge Panel for certain businesses, the “Return customers” data is a completely new thing which has not been seen before. It appears to show the percentage of people that have visited a business more than once during a selected time period.
With this data, you can gain clearer insight into who your business is actually serving. Is your business thriving on repeat clientele, or do most customers only come in once or twice during a given time period?
Keep in mind, if you go looking for these new insights, not everyone has access to them yet. It seems like this update is either rolling out gradually, or will only be made available in specific areas.
Google’s Annual Webspam Report
Google released its annual webspam report for 2016 this week, which details the top webspam trends of the past year and what Google is doing to fight them.
Here is a quick rundown of some of the key data points:
- There was a 32% increase in webspam in 2016 compared to 2015.
- Google fought spam by:
- Making multiple algorithm improvements
- Making Penguin part of the core algorithm
- Manually sending 9 million messages to webmasters
- Received 180,000 user-submitted spam reports in 2016, 52% of them were confirmed to be spam.
Wrapping it Up
The search giant is now preparing to become the job search giant. The king of internet ads is creating its own ad blocker for Google Chrome. YouTube has gotten more lenient on live streaming. You can now search your life’s history on Google Maps for iOS. New reporting metrics are being spotted in some users’ GMB accounts. According to Google’s annual report, webspam is on the rise but the company is working harder than ever to fight it.
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