The changes were noted by Rafael Rivera, developer of the EarTrumpet Windows volume control app, early last week and were first reported by The Verge.
Why we care. Microsoft’s default browser reversal shows that it’s paying attention to the feedback and criticism it has received since it began forcing Edge on users. Interestingly, it defended its decision to make switching default browsers more difficult by claiming it was “implementing customer feedback to customize and control defaults at a more granular level.” Yet it appears criticism has finally convinced the company to make Windows 11 more user-friendly.
The issue. Windows 11 originally set Edge as the default browser and made it hard for users to switch to a different browser. This version also blocked third-party apps from circumventing the setup.
Unless Windows users remembered to tick the “always use this app” box after installing a new browser, those who later wanted another default were forced to change individual file extensions or protocol handlers — a far more tedious workflow that increased the odds Edge would remain the default in some instances.
Aaron Woodman, general manager of Windows marketing at Microsoft, confirmed these new changes were intentional in a statement to The Verge: “We streamlined the ability for a Windows Insider to set the ‘default browser’ to apps that register for HTTP:, HTTPS:, .HTM, and .HTML.”
An upcoming Windows 11 update will block third-party apps from enabling users to select which browser and search engine Start menu searches open in, according to The Verge. Start menu searches open in the Edge browser, with results from Bing, regardless of the user’s designated default browser and search engine.
Why we care. Bypassing user-assigned defaults to open search results in Edge and Bing forces more users into Microsoft-owned channels. This presents more opportunities for Microsoft to show ads to those users, even if Edge and Bing aren’t their default choices. This may slightly, and somewhat artificially, add more value to some of Microsoft’s ad products, while strong-arming users into trying its browser and search engine (albeit in a limited sense), which might increase adoption over the long run.
EdgeDeflector was released in 2017, but only recently has Microsoft taken action against it and similar apps that enable users to designate which browser its Start menu search results open in. “The [500 thousand] EdgeDeflector users were probably never more than a nuisance to Microsoft,” Daniel Aleksandersen, the developer of EdgeDeflector, said in a blog post, “However, last month both the Brave and Firefox web browsers either copied EdgeDeflector’s functionality or signaled it was on the roadmap … That news probably did make Microsoft sit up and pay attention.” At the time of publishing, Firef had roughly 218 million monthly active desktop users.
Edge-only Start menu search results. Regardless of the user’s default browser choice, Microsoft launches Edge and Bing when showing results for searches conducted from the Windows 10 and Windows 11 Start menu. In Windows 11, searches from the Widgets panel also only open in Edge and Bing.
EdgeDeflector and similar third-party apps offered a way to overcome this limitation, enabling users to open Start menu search results in the browser of their choice. However, Microsoft has confirmed that an update, which is scheduled to roll out in the coming weeks, will put an end to these workarounds. “Windows also offers certain end-to-end customer experiences in both Windows 10 and Windows 11, the search experience from the taskbar is one such example of an end-to-end experience that is not designed to be redirected,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge, “When we become aware of improper redirection, we issue a fix.”
Firefox was planning its own workaround. “We have worked on code that launches Firefox when the microsoft-edge protocol is used for those users that have already chosen Firefox as their default browser,” a Mozilla spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge, “Following the recent change to Windows 11, this planned implementation will no longer be possible.”
Switching default browsers is also more difficult than it used to be. Windows 11 introduced a new workflow for switching default browsers: Users can still select “Always use this app” in the prompt that appears when they first launch a browser, but if they don’t do that, they will have to take additional steps and assign a default browser for each file or link type (HTM, HTML, PDF, HTTP, HTTPs, etc). This process takes longer than it did on Windows 10, where users could switch default applications for web browsing, email, photos, videos and so on without digging into file formats or link types.
Additionally, Mozilla has added an option to set Firefox as the default browser with a single click. This option is only available in the version of Firefox downloadable from the web — it’s missing from the version of Firefox in the Microsoft Store, where Microsoft has restricted that feature to its own Edge browser.
New features announced in the Bing Shopping roadmap have just gone live to help shoppers find what they’re looking for at the best prices and to help retailers showcase their inventories in new places.
What’s new? “Deal-conscious shoppers will now see ‘sales’ and ‘price drops’ marked on applicable items, alongside deal rankings that are ‘good’, ‘great’, or ‘epic’. Additionally, shoppers can choose to compare prices across stores or find a product’s price history over time, in just one click,” said Microsoft Bing’s Blog. We first announced this in our coverage last week, as Microsoft works to become more of a recommendation engine for shoppers online: “Using privacy-focused shopper data, the shopping experience will eventually become ‘query-less’ says Chatterjee. Being able to make ‘for you’ recommendations will ‘add another dimension for users.’ Bing will be able to customize shopping suggestions based on these shopper types and the overall retail landscape trends it’s seeing.”
Checkout directly in Edge browser. Along with these deal indicators for price-conscious shoppers, Microsoft Bing is making checkout as easy as possible to smooth any barriers to conversion for shoppers: “When a shopper is ready to buy, they can easily see if their item is available for ‘curbside pickup,’ or can try our new ‘Buy Now’ feature for Amazon products that directly adds the item to Amazon’s cart. We’ve also begun rolling out express checkout on Edge to make purchase just a few clicks on any seller website!”
Why we care. These new features enhance the experience for shoppers who want to be able to compare prices, get the best deals, and know what’s trending — all in a single interface. For retailers, it’s easy to participate in with feed-based Merchant Center integrations, like Shopify. While there is some disadvantage to not being able to make the case why your product may cost more (commoditization of products), having them all in a single view for shoppers can reduce barriers to conversion and easy checkout could improve those conversions. It’s worth trying and monitoring.
Bing Shopping now includes new customer-focused tabs to help shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for all in one place. The new tabs categorize commerce options under headers like Departments, Deals, Trending products, Price drops, Stores, and more. “These enhanced options provide useful hover menus and informative page guides which highlight choices, deals, and trends,” said the announcement.
With shopping season already upon us, the options for retailers are opening up. Both Google and Microsoft (as well as Facebook and other social channels) are investing in ways to help both small retailers and big-box stores be where they need for customers to find them. Search Engine Land sat down with Sumit Chatterjee, Lead Product Manager at Microsoft Shopping, to chat about the future of Shopping at Bing and how the product roadmap will continue to help both users and retailers find each other.
How Shopping has worked in the past. Chatterjee emphasized that Bing Shopping was previously very search-driven and often only included products from advertisers who paid to show up in the carousels and listings. In August of last year, the company opened up an organic shopping listing option to retailers who participated via the Merchant Center. The feed-based system was limited at first but has grown since. Before this option was available, though, only advertisers who paid to have their product show in listings were able to get traffic from this section of Bing Shopping.
Bing Shopping moving up-market. Along with the upgraded Shopping tabs, Chatterjee says that Microsoft is moving Shopping up the funnel. The company announced in September that Shopping options will soon be available in Edge. The updates will include “easy access to online expert reviews and customer ratings for over 5 million products right from the address bar when shopping in Microsoft Edge” said Liat Ben-Zur, Corporate Vice President. Along with Shopping directly from your browser, Chatterjee also hinted at new shopping options tapping directly into the Windows user base.
Becoming a shopping recommendation engine. The new direction for Bing Shopping is to become a recommendation engine over just a search engine. Chatterjee explains that Microsoft is noticing three main types of shoppers who use Bing: trend seekers, passive shoppers, and deal seekers. Using privacy-focused shopper data, the shopping experience will eventually become “query-less” says Chatterjee. Being able to make “for you” recommendations will “add another dimension for users.” Bing will be able to customize shopping suggestions based on these shopper types and the overall retail landscape trends it’s seeing.
Bing shopper types. Trend seekers are looking for shopping recommendations based on what others are buying at the time. It could be fashion, trending holiday toys, or any other popular item or item type. For these types of shoppers, Microsoft will have recommended deals based on what the platform is seeing everyone else buying and the best pricing options for buyers. The “highly rated” indicator will also show that many other shoppers have reviewed a trending product for its quality. Passive shoppers would also benefit from the recommended or “for you” deals section. They may just be browsing to see what’s out there or out of boredom, so the personalized suggestions and indication of sales could be what tips them over the edge to buy. The deal seekers will be able to look into price history, ratings and reviews, too. A new section on the roadmap, Chatterjee explained, is a “Good/Great/Epic” deals section which will encourage these deal-seekers to buy while the prices are the best.
Stores have to opt in to make it work. In order for the model to work for both shoppers and retailers, stores will have to opt-in to providing their “entire corpus of products. Right now, they can do that through the Merchant Center:
If you’re currently a Microsoft Shopping Campaigns customer, there’s no action required by you to participate. All approved product offers in Microsoft Merchant Center will automatically be opted into [Bing Shopping listings].
If you’re not a Microsoft Shopping Campaigns customer, create a Microsoft Merchant Center store, submit all eligible products, and ensure they’re approved. When the Merchant Center store is created you’re opted-in to the free Product Listings offering, enabling your approved products to be eligible to show in the free products listings section on the Bing Shopping Tab.
Microsoft Bing’s new Shopify integration is another way they’re making this process as easy as possible for retailers. “Currently available in the U.S. and Canada, the Microsoft Channel app within Shopify allows businesses to show up automatically in the Microsoft Bing Shopping tab and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab for free as product listings,” Search Engine Land wrote in October of this year.
Going from a price comparison tool to a shopping destination. The Bing Shopping product roadmap includes new features that will bring convenience to purchase, Chatterjee also told Search Engine Land. Along with becoming a recommendation engine, Bing Shopping strives to become a shopping destination by integrating express checkout and shipping directly into Bing Shopping. Shoppers will be able to check out directly through Edge:
“To use this feature while shopping in Microsoft Edge, select guest checkout within the retailer site and then click Try express checkout in the address bar. If you’ve used this feature before, you’ll see your autofill information there. Review the information for accuracy and then click ‘Try all coupons and autofill details,’” said Ben-Zur.
The auto-fill option replicates services like Amazon’s one-click buy making the buying experience even more seamless for shoppers — and reducing checkout barriers that cause abandoned carts and prevent the final conversion.
Why we care. Chatterjee told us that there are 1 billion impressions per year in the Bing Shopping canvas. That number will likely only grow as Microsoft expands their shopping product offerings through to Edge and Windows. As a free listing service that opts in search marketers and retailers with easy-to-use integrations and feed-based systems, it seems like a no-brainer that commerce marketers and even SMBs could benefit from participating in their Shopping roadmap. Many shoppers already use the Bing Shopping tabs to price-compare, which can lead to products seeming like commodities. Many retailers would prefer their shoppers land on-site to discover the value of their products and drive value-based conversions. However, the buy now and checkout options could mean lower friction in the final buy. Either way, it’s worth participating in as the Shopping product continues to grow.
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Good morning, Marketers, “What was that one taco place we ordered from last summer?”
Search isn’t just conducted on the world wide web — it occurs in inboxes, order histories, the DMs and more. Search engines are focused on helping us find the new information we’re looking for and, although some degree of personalization impacts the results, it’s very difficult to remember which listing you clicked on if it wasn’t in the top positions or a brand you recognize (which speaks to the importance of branding).
Back to my greeting at the top: My partner wanted to order from that same place again and it took us 30 minutes — both searching our inboxes, order histories and various food delivery platforms — to finally find the restaurant. “That is sad,” my colleague Barry Schwartz said when I told him about it. It is sad that platforms haven’t prioritized their internal search features to more quickly and accurately surface our historical interactions — if you’ve ever had to search by date in Gmail, you probably know what I’m talking about. This could have been lost business for that restaurant and, in a more general sense, diminishes our marketing efforts because it’s not very useful to be top-of-mind if the inability to locate a piece of crucial information prevents prospective customers from converting.
George Nguyen, Editor
Business reopenings have flattened while new leisure and hospitality openings drove growth, according to Yelp
Eighty-five percent of temporarily closed businesses in the U.S. since the onset of the pandemic have reopened as of September 30, 2021, according to Yelp. In Q3 2021, new hotels (up 32% YoY), nightlife (up 30% YoY) and beauty (up 7% YoY) businesses drove openings, although total new business openings nationwide have flattened (increasing just 1% YoY). Consumer interest in the nightlife, fitness and entertainment sectors has also risen substantially — interest in dance clubs is up 67%, yoga is up 41% and indoor play centers are up 204%, for example.
Why we care. These statistics give us a general idea of how local businesses are operating and what’s top-of-mind for consumers. Business reopenings have decreased, which may mean that temporarily closed businesses are becoming less common and that local economies are adapting. While leisure and hospitality drove new business openings, these businesses may still be navigating a labor shortage, which can severely impact the ability to serve customers and undermine marketing efforts. The restaurant and food industry is facing a similar labor shortage, along with rising food prices, which may explain the diminished growth nationwide. In the nightlife, fitness and entertainment industries, consumer interest has exceeded 2019 levels across the board — save for movie theaters — which may indicate less hesitancy among consumers to engage in activities where social distancing is difficult or impossible.
These statistics can be interpreted as generally positive, but it’s important to remember that it’s historical data. The pandemic is still here and so are its side effects: Inflation is at its fastest rate in 13 years, there is a labor shortage in certain sectors, mask mandates remain in effect in some states, certain cities have vaccine requirements for indoor businesses and supply chain difficulties are trickling down to customers. In addition, we are approaching the holiday season, which saw a substantial spike in COVID cases last year — business owners and marketers should have a plan in place should history repeat itself.
Holiday sales are predicted to break a new record even though Cyber Week growth is slowing
U.S. online holiday sales will reach a new record, $207 billion, from November 1 to December 31, according to Adobe’s Holiday Shopping Forecast. That’s up 10% YoY, a strong growth rate after a year in which the pandemic drove customers towards e-commerce. However, major shopping holidays seem to be losing steam (see the chart above): While Cyber Week (Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) is expected to drive $36 billion in online spending (17% of the entire holiday season), growth has slowed, coming in at just 5% YoY — half the rate of the season’s overall growth. Nevertheless, Adobe expects Cyber Monday to remain the biggest shopping day of the year, although the three major shopping days (Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Thanksgiving) are growing less than the season overall.
Here are some more quick stats from the report:
U.S. consumers will pay 9% more on average during Cyber Week this year, compared to the last holiday season.
Out-of-stock messages are up 172% vs. pre-pandemic period (Jan 2020); and up 360% vs. Jan 2019.
Online revenue from Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) this year has been 10% higher than 2020 and 45% higher than 2019. Shoppers are also using BNPL for less expensive orders, with the minimum order value dropping to $225 (a 12% decrease YoY).
Why we care. “We are entering a second holiday season where the pandemic will dictate the terms,” said Patrick Brown, vice president of growth marketing and insights at Adobe, “Limited product availability, higher prices, and concerns about shipping delays will drive another surge towards e-commerce, as it provides more flexibility in how and when consumers choose to shop.”
Additionally, Cyber Week’s diminished growth is something we’re also seeing for other major shopping holidays — Memorial Day, Labor Day and President’s Day grew on average 16 percentage points slower in two-year growth than the seven days leading up to them, according to the report. This may indicate that retailers are spreading out their sales over more days and/or a shift in when consumers are shopping.
After 13 years, Frédéric Dubut, principal product manager, core search & AI, departs Microsoft
Frédéric Dubut (left) and Fili Wiese at SMX Advanced in 2019.
After thirteen years, Frédéric Dubut, principal PM manager, core search & AI at Microsoft, announced his departure on Monday. Dubut has been an avid contributor to the search community, lending his insights into the inner workings of Bing for our Bing SEO guide as well as speaking at SMX on webspam and penalties, Bing’s “quest for intelligent search” and more.
Why we care. In addition to being an industry, search marketing is also a community of professionals that do our best to share what we know so that our colleagues and the brands they work for can succeed. In his role at Microsoft, Frédéric Dubut exemplified these qualities and greatly contributed to the industry’s understanding of how Bing crawls, indexes and ranks. Dubut has not disclosed where he’s headed next, nevertheless, we hope the best for him and are optimistic that whoever steps into his now-former role will also be a steward and advocate for SEOs.
Rethinking ROAS, the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and creative briefs
The ROAS pathology: How revenue-based optimization is selling you short. “As ad channels like Google Shopping become increasingly hands-off in nature, the true competitive advantage will not be in bidding itself,” wrote Mike Ryan, head of retail insights at Smarter Ecommerce, “But rather in being able to determine the actual ROI more realistically than your competitors.” Ryan’s article highlights the potential dangers of ROAS as a KPI and how advertisers can stay ahead of the competition by ditching this metric.
Dive deep into the refreshed Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. On Tuesday, Google announced an update of its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines — the first update in over a year. Jennifer Slegg, founder of The SEM Post and SMX speaker, has published her very detailed guide to all the latest changes, even the ones not mentioned in the change log.
Types of creative briefs.This week’s Marketoonist pokes fun at the many approaches marketers and their agency counterparts take in coming up with a creative game plan. “Because most marketers give insufficient attention to the creative brief, this gives an advantage to the few that do,” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “Inspired briefs attract inspired teams and lead to inspired work.”
We’ve curated our picks from across the web so you can retire your feed reader
In February, Microsoft launched Smart Pages, a free website builder service to help small businesses that may not have had websites. This was critical during the pandemic as more businesses were essentially required to be online. However, many SMBs don’t have the know-how or the funds to commission a brand new website. Based on customer feedback, Microsoft announced new features for the Smart Pages service this week.
Publish a Smart Pages website with no social and advertising tools required. “With Smart Pages standalone mode, you can create, edit, and publish your website for free — no payment information required. We know that not every business with a web presence is prepared to advertise online and want to give everyone the access to Smart Pages,” wrote Will Rivitz, Program Manager, and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager. If business owners choose to partake in Microsoft Advertising later, they can easily sign up when they’re ready.
New analytics features to figure out what works (and what needs tweaking). The new Smart Pages reporting feature allows marketers to track pageviews, clicks, and more all within the platform. “By tracking these metrics over time, you’ll see how the improvements and edits you make affect your customers’ experiences,” said Rivitz and Ventura.
Source: Microsoft blog
Bing Place integration for local businesses. Marketers will be able to create a new Smart Pages website directly from their Bing Places account and integrate the two properties. “Customers viewing your business on Bing Places will be able to go directly to your Smart Page, where you can show even more information,” according to the announcement.
Why we care. Many small businesses operate without a website, utilizing Facebook pages and local listings as their “hub” for customers, but having your own property is critical to controlling your messaging, optimizing to reach your target audience, and driving in more critical traffic and potential customers. These updates open up the Microsoft Smart Pages website builder to help even more SMBs create an owned online presence and optimize it to drive more qualified leads and customers.
Microsoft Advertising has introduced Credit card ads as an open beta, the company announced Tuesday. Credit card ads will become available this week to advertisers targeting customers in the U.S. and Canada. Over the last six months, the company has also launched ad formats specifically for the travel and leisure and automotive sectors.
An example of Credit card ads in the search results. Image: Microsoft Advertising.
Where and when Credit card ads can appear. Credit card ads appear on the right rail of Bing search results and run alongside mainline text ad placements. These ads can trigger for queries like brand name, card category and credit level.
How Credit card ads work. Credit card ads are dynamically generated based on advertisers’ data feeds. The feed file should contain business data like the card issuer, annual fee and any sign-up bonuses. Keywords are not required and Microsoft Advertising does not need to crawl your site to generate content for this ad format.
How to get started. To register for the open beta, contact your Microsoft Advertising representative or enroll at this link.
Why we care. This format may be useful for credit card advertisers, like banks, brands and comparison sites, to showcase their promotions. They may also offer increased efficiency for this particular segment of advertisers: “In early flights of Credit card ads, advertisers so far have seen 70% lower cost per acquisition,” Microsoft said.
From an industry standpoint, Microsoft Advertising is on a streak of launching vertical-specific, feed-based products that are unique to the company — in addition to Credit card ads, the company has rolled out open betas for Tours and Activities ads and Automotive ads over the last six months. The platform’s strategy of appealing to advertisers with automated ad formats tailored specifically to their industry may help it achieve wider adoption and increase its market share.
Search marketing has a diversity problem. Older data from the American Marketing Association shows that most marketing leadership is still majority white, hetero, and male. Meanwhile, the audiences we’re marketing to are more diverse and inclusive than ever. It’s a topic we’ve covered multiple times at Search Engine Land:
We’re elated to announce that this year’s awards will include a guest judge, last year’s winner Areej AbuAli, a pillar in the SEO community and the founder of Women in Tech SEO.
You may nominate as many organizations or individuals as you feel deserve the recognition. We ask that you highlight specific initiatives conducted by the nominee and that in the nomination form you include the contact of someone who can “second” that nomination.
Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.
Good morning, Marketers, I spent last week in a cabin near the woods in New York.
The lack of distraction gave me time to think about some of the things that are holding me back, so I thought I’d share one with you: While on a hike, I found myself frustrated because we had been lost for some time. Apparently, that’s a given when you go hiking in a new area, but that wasn’t of much comfort to me. I couldn’t shake the need for progress, even though “progress” wasn’t the point of the hike.
The next day, I wrote “permission to change” in my notepad (read: diary). It’s to remind me that the next decision doesn’t have to be related to the previous circumstance or emotion. I didn’t need to continue to be frustrated just because I was already frustrated. Likewise, the way you do your job, teach your kids, communicate with your partner and so on doesn’t have to be dictated by your history — especially the negative patterns that may pepper that history.
It’s a cliché to say you can change whenever you want. I think you have to give yourself that permission to change and tell yourself it’s okay to try something new, which can be scary and may require some vulnerability.
Now, back to all the search marketing news you need to get your day started.
George Nguyen, Editor
Google News app will display non-AMP content and send readers to publisher pages
As part of the page experience update, Google News will be displaying both AMP and non-AMP web content, the company announced in an email to publishers. The platform will no longer render article text from RSS feeds in the Google News app; instead, it will send readers directly to publishers’ webpages.
Why we care. We’ve known for some time that the Top Stories carousel would be open to non-AMP content, but now we know the same will go for the Google News app. The AMP requirement for Google News may have been a barrier for some publishers, but now that it’s going by the wayside, those publishers may want to get their content onto the platform to attract more readers potentially.
And, as Google stated in the announcement, the Google News performance reports in Search Console are unaffected, and your ability to track and measure traffic from Google News remains unchanged.
SEO tools among those marketers replaced last year
In a year when digital engagement became paramount, can you believe some marketers ripped and replaced search marketing tools? It’s true. About 16% of respondents to this year’s MarTech Replacement Survey said they replaced SEO Tools in the past year. While that’s a smaller proportion than those that said they replaced their marketing automation tools (24%), it sat right in the middle in the range of tools replaced. Get the full report here and grab your free pass to next week’s MarTech, when we’ll talk more about the results in detail.
Microsoft Ads announces optimization score in Recommendations tab
Optimization Score is now available on the Recommendations tab in Microsoft Ads, according to the latest announcement from the company. The new scoring system helps improve advertisers’ account optimization status and potential, help advertisers spend their time more efficiently and to prioritize the optimization actions with higher impact, and track their optimization efforts over time.
To check Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads, visit the Recommendations page in Microsoft Advertising. “You’ll see a percentage score in blue (see below). Each category of recommendations is shown with an aggregated score uplift from the recommendations belonging to it, and each recommendation is indicated with a score uplift in an ellipse on the top right of the card with a value from 0.1% to 100%, representing its estimated impact on your account or campaign performance,” wrote Cui and Ventura. If you apply or dismiss a recommendation, your score will adjust accordingly.
63% of consumers say incorrect information on a business listing would stop them from choosing that business
Image: BrightLocal.
A BrightLocal study of 1,141 US-based consumers found that, over the last 12 months, 76% of consumers said they have arrived at a business too early or too late because its opening hours were wrong online. An even greater proportion (77%) said that they found conflicting information on business information sites.
Why we care. Inaccurate business information has become alarmingly common since the pandemic began, and the newly established prevalence only adds to the frustration for customers. The study also found that 63% of consumers would be deterred from using a business if their listing contained inaccurate information. That’s a huge proportion of potential customers that your local business could be opening itself up to by simply maintaining accurate details across the platforms that audiences use to find them.
I’m not crying…someone must be cutting some Brand Onions…
Your “Brand Onion.” “The Brand Onion rarely passes the ‘Factory Floor Test’ — could you share it outside of the Marketing Ivory Tower without being laughed out of the room?” said Marketoonist creator Tom Fishburne, “The strongest business communication is just plain English.”
20% of Bing results offer direct answers. A Financial Timesarticle (that was mainly about Google’s MUM) from a few weeks ago reads: “The ability to extract answers from text has already enabled Bing to offer direct answers to 20% of the queries it gets, according to Ribas.” Jordi Ribas is the CVP of search and AI at Microsoft Bing, and it sounds like he’s saying that Bing serves direct answers for 20% of all queries conducted on Bing. Tip of the hat to Glenn Gabe for bringing this to our attention.
Start is Microsoft’s answer to Apple News, Google News. Microsoft Start is the company’s new, personalized news portal. It’s available as both a website and mobile app. Readers can provide feedback on the personalization algorithm via a thumbs up/down or manually add/remove interests. It’s ad-supported and began rolling out on Tuesday. Now, the questions are: Will Microsoft be able to attract users? And, will it provide value for publishers?
Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” tech is coming to Whole Foods
Amazon is testing technology that enables shoppers to walk right out of some Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores in two Whole Foods locations: Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California.
This is the first time a major grocery chain is implementing this type of solution. Although it’s a long way away from getting adopted in most convenience stores, this trial will likely provide some critical takeaways for local businesses.
For example, how will consumers react to the new workflow, which requires them to sign in with an app? Chances are it’ll go well for Whole Foods, which has a cashback app integrated with its parent company. But, other grocery store chains may not have a customer base that’s used to opening an app every time they walk in. Also, how will employee count be affected? Will employees need to be re-trained for other duties?
Amazon has licensed its “Just Walk Out” technology to third-party retailers. If the company can demonstrate that it improves the customer experience, it might compel local businesses to give it a try. Perhaps that will afford local business owners more time to provide better customer service or simply find other ways to improve their business.
Optimization Score is now available on the Recommendations tab in Microsoft Ads, according to the latest announcement from the company. The new scoring system is meant to help improve advertisers’ account optimization status and potential, help advertisers spend their time more efficiently and to prioritize the optimization actions with higher impact, and track their optimization efforts over time.
“Along with the overall Optimization Score, you’ll see a list of recommendations tailored specifically for your account, to help you optimize each campaign. Each recommendation displays a score uplift percentage, showing how much your optimization score will be impacted when you apply or dismiss that recommendation. Optimization Score is available at Account and Campaign level, and is shown for active Search, Shopping and Audience campaigns,” said Jessica Cui, Principal Program Manager and Cristiano Ventura Sr. Product Marketing Manager.
How to check Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads. Visit the Recommendations page in Microsoft Advertising. “You’ll see a percentage score in blue (see below). Each category of recommendations is shown with an aggregated score uplift from the recommendations belonging to it, and each recommendation is indicated with a score uplift in an ellipse on the top right of the card with a value from 0.1% to 100%, representing its estimated impact on your account or campaign performance,” wrote Cui and Ventura. If you apply or dismiss a recommendation, your score will adjust accordingly.
How is Optimization Score calculated? Microsoft Advertising looks at multiple aspects of a campaign: bidding and budgets, keywords and targeting, and ads and extensions. From there it determines if these features are fully optimized and displays recommendations for full optimization. “The recommendation is evaluated by its impact to your performance: the more performance impact from the recommendation, the greater effect on your overall score,” according to the announcement.
How to improve your scores. Any recommendation can be applied or dismissed. “You can see the total score achieved from the dismissed recommendations, showing as the light blue portion of the percentage bar. For example, if you apply or dismiss a recommendation that has a score uplift of 10%, your account’s optimization score increases by 10%. Applying or dismissing all recommendations can get you to 100% for your account,” said Microsoft Ads.
Why we care. Google has had optimization scores and the ability to apply or dismiss for a while now. This means Microsoft Advertisers will have a similar experience in the competitor platform. The availability of Optimization Score in Microsoft Ads now means advertisers have the option to ensure they understand all of the recommendations and consider options they may not have before.
