1) Business owners can now add “special hours” into their “Google My Business listings”. It will be beneficial for those business owners who frequently change their operating hours such as amusement parks, tourist attractions, etc. It will also be helpful for all the other business owners during holidays and special events.
2) Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook recently predicted that cash will soon be dead and that the next generation will not even know what cash is. Apps like Apple Pay are slowly being adopted by users, but at this point 80% of the users haven’t even tried it yet.
3) Google has finally stopped their continuous testing of their local search results pages. This should mean we can soon expect to see some changes in the result displays.
4) According to a recent study, Local Search Advertising is going to grow by over half a billion dollars in 2016.
5) Google has changed many G+ page URLs for local business listings. Most of the new URLs redirect correctly, but there are roughly 10%, that are unable to redirect as intended.
6) Facebook is trying harder to engage their audience. We can soon expect a stand-alone app from Facebook that will notify users about breaking news. They continue to work with publishers so that a user can read news articles without leaving the Facebook app. Additionally, they are indexing nearly two trillion posts so that they can provide a personalized search experience.
7) If you’re a restaurant owner take note: Yelp will now be adding alerts on restaurant profiles across the nation, whose health department score is poor.
8) Facebook is making the same mistake as Google did in the past. They are encouraging more online reviews, which means they are focusing on quantity rather than quality. As a result, review spam across Facebook has become a major problem.
9) Google and HomeAdvisor have joined forces to provide homeowners with better home services. People searching for services like plumbers, electricians or landscapers will get results with the tag “HomeAdvisor screened and approved”.
10) Yahoo Mail has now blocked users who run Ad blockers. I understand the reason, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a company that is struggling to maintain to keep their audience.
About The Author: Kevin Watts
Kevin Watts is the founder of Raincross, a premier web design, development and digital marketing agency headquartered in Riverside, CA.
Kevin got his start in online marketing and website design by working for some of the most prominent names in online retail. He's most recognized for helping to start e-commerce retailer Organize.com in 1998, and spent 12 years running the company's e-commerce and online marketing operations. He has been recognized and has received several online retail, marketing and merchandising awards throughout his career.
Kevin grew up in Riverside, CA and graduated from the University of Wyoming. In his spare time, Kevin is an avid fly-fisherman, college football fan, and enjoys spending time with his son Matthew, daughter Kate and wife Lindsey.
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