Google has lifted a lid on some of the secrets behind parts of its search algorithm, including how RankBrain handles unseen queries, how it penalises certain content and how many algorithm experiments it performed in 2017.

Speaking to a United States House Judiciary Committee on “Facebook, Google and Twitter: Examining the Content Filtering Practices of Social Media Giants”, a Google representative Juniper Downs revealed some insight into part of the search algorithm and how it determines search result rankings.

Google hosted its Marketing Live Keynote on Tuesday and, amongst the key announcements, cross-device reporting is coming to Google Analytics.

Advertisers will now be able to seamlessly attribute consumer spending and activity across mobile and desktop devices, allowing them to understand consumer behaviour and consumer value as they engage with the brand on multiple devices and platforms.

Other key announcements include Responsive Search Ads, powered by machine learning to deliver the most relevant and contextual ads, the re-branding of Adwords and the introduction of a new and integrated Google Marketing Platform.

Surveys from Marin and Zazzle reveal that advertisers’ biggest challenge around the world in 2018 is the successful integration of search and social channels.

Apple hosted it’s WWDC Developer Conference, and announced a number of developments that take direct aim at the likes of Facebook and Google.

The biggest of these developments was the announcement that the new version of iOS and MacOS would not allow the likes of Facebook or Google to track the browsing habits of Apple users across other parts of the web – effectively meaning that they couldn’t use those browsing habits to inform future advertising.

Google and PayPal have announced new a integration strategy that will make it easier for users to complete a purchase through services such as Gmail and YouTube – potentially creating new content marketing opportunities for Ecommerce brands.

The new partnership will allow users to connect their PayPal and Google Pay accounts and seamlessly make payments whilst they are using Google properties.

For example, the deal could allow a user to watch an instructional “how to” video on YouTube and then easily, with just the click of the button, purchase the tools or materials that were featured in the video.

Google held its I/O Conference last week, and artificial intelligence was the big theme.

Amongst the headlines from the event was the introduction of Google Duplex, which will be able to automatically make phone calls to book restaurant tables and salon appointments, as well as the new version of Google’s Android OS – Android P.

With updates also coming to Google Mail, News and new voice search devices, there is plenty for developers and digital marketers to get their teeth into from Google I/O 2018

Google updated a patent behind its PageRank algorithm, which is a key component of the Google ranking algorithm.

SEO blogger Bill Slawski published an article noting that Google updated a patent related to PageRank, which is an algorithm within Google that influences how sites are ranked.

The changes seem to focus on how links are judged by trying to determine the distance of a link between the site that it links to and the most authoritative site within a given niche.

Digital Minute is 100 episodes old. Over that time, we've picked up a lot about video marketing, but how can you apply our experience of 100 episodes and apply it you your video marketing strategy? 

When you produce 100 episodes of a video series, you inevitably come up against some challenges and some successes along the way. So as we celebrate a century of Digital Minutes, we wanted to share some of our learnings over the course of this series, and how you can apply them to your video marketing strategy.

What 100 episodes of Digital Minute has taught us about video marketing.

Google has announced that it is rolling out the next stage of its mobile first index, with more sites being moved onto the new ranking algorithm.

This rollout is only for sites that “follow the best practices for mobile-first indexing”, but will see those sites ranked in organic search based on how they perform on mobile devices, rather than desktop.

Google’s long-awaited mobile first index is now expected to go live later this summer.

Social media influencers could face an advertising clampdown after the Advertising Standards Authority announced that it would be launching an investigation into the relationship between them and brands.

The ASA wants to investigate whether the average social media user can tell if a post or video is an advert, and to look at some of the loopholes that influencers may be exploiting to mask the fact that their content is a paid-for ad.

The regulator is concerned that some publishers are taking advantage of technical flaws in the YouTube system to obscure ad disclosures, and have also raised concerns about the issue of so-called “astro-turfing”, where commercial promotions are disguised as editorial content.