A great read on the ins and outs of User Intent, why it matters, and how to optimize for it.

We have seen Find Results On in the US and Europe for location-based service queries, car-related queries, etc that usually has multiple marketplace sites that can serve results and now it looks like that is expanding to travel queries as well.

What The FAQ is a fancy new tool that leverages the power of Huggingface Transformers & @Google T5 & to generate quality question & answer pairs from you content all you need to do is pass the URL to the app.

1. Input a URL and the tool will suggest Q&As

2. Select the Questions and answers that *make sense*

3. Download the Q&As to create your FAQs!

NOTE: The app is in beta and will only look at the first thousand scraped characters only.

TF-Ranking is an open-source TF-based library that makes building customized learning-to-rank models easier and facilitates fast exploration of new model structures for production and research. Folks at Google has pushed out a post on some of the research milestones TF-Ranking had achieved in the two and half years since the initial release. This is one of those posts that I wait for someone smarter than me to break down so I can understand it.

Looks like Google may start showing Areas Served for Service Area Businesses in Google.

Sample Query: Try searching for Sample Query on Mobile or Desktop. I was NOT able to trigger the result from Australia or USA.

In a test by Joy Hawkins, she noticed that adding Google posts to Google My Business (GMB) listings had no measurable impact on rankings in the local pack.

Also, it’s worth keeping in mind they still strongly suggest utilizing the Google posts feature as a way to increase conversions and deliver a message to potential customers.

LinkedIn would like to broaden the base of people shelling out money for its premium membership, and it’s hoping that access to paywalled content from premium publishers will help.

The Microsoft-owned social network quietly launched a pilot program last month called LinkedIn Premium News, which gives LinkedIn Premium members greater access to content published by sites that use Piano’s paywall technology, according to sources at two publications familiar with LinkedIn’s pitch. The program, which began with less than a dozen publishers, is still expanding, a third source familiar with the project said, with more publishers slated to come aboard in the coming weeks.

Google appears to be testing a new feature that allows users to add themselves and their parties to waitlists at restaurants that would normally require a phone call. Powered by Duplex, Google’s AI-driven natural language processing technology that can converse with business owners over the phone, the waitlist capability could benefit hospitality organizations facing surges in traffic as pandemic fears abate.

Instagram has today announced that the Reels length limit is being extended from 30 seconds to 60 seconds for all users.

And given that TikTok now enables the upload of longer clips (up to 3 minutes), and YouTube Shorts can also be up to 60 seconds in length, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Instagram followed the trend.

In this episode of #AskGooglebot, John Mueller shares how Google receives, reviews and prioritizes user feedback to make Search better for everyone.

Bing has a search feature that lets searchers see relevant images from a search result for a specific query. There is an “images” button next to the search result snippet, that when you click on it, it pops up a carousel of relevant images from that site.

Instagram and its parent company Facebook have announced a series of changes today that are designed to protect younger users. Going forward, both platforms said that advertisers will only be able to target users under age 18 based on their age, gender, and location.

Previously, advertisers on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger could target these users based on their interests or activities across other apps and websites. The update will be global, Facebook says, and roll out in coming weeks.

Additionally, while users must be at least 13 years old to create an Instagram account, that platform will now give all new users under 16 a private account by default — though they will have the option to go public. (Private accounts enable only followers to see their grid posts, Stories, and Reels, whereas public accounts are viewable to everyone on Instagram).

With the launch of Google Publisher Center in December 2019, the manual review & approval process went away and in came the machines. Learn more about what that process involves in this detailed look at Google’s Algorithmic News inclusion process.

Takes the 7+ min survey and pass on you feedback and options.

This tutorial explains how to compare crawls using the Screaming Frog SEO Spider and analyse how crawl data has changed in tabs and filters over time. Crawl comparison helps monitor the progress of SEO issues and opportunities and provides granular data about what has changed between crawls.

Twitter’s recent acquisition spree continues today as the company announces it has acqui-hired the team from news aggregator and summary app Brief. The startup from former Google engineers launched last year to offer a subscription-based news summary app that aimed to tackle many of the problems with today’s news cycle, including information overload, burnout, media bias and algorithms that promoted engagement over news accuracy.

As a result of today’s deal, Brief will wind down its subscription app on July 31.

Twitter announced earlier this year a new “Super Follow” platform that will allow creators to offer exclusive content on Twitter only to those who pay a monthly subscription. Once this becomes available, users will be able to view only Super Follow tweets through a new dedicated tab.

The new tab was revealed by developer Nima Owji, who has demonstrated some other unreleased Twitter features in the past. As shown in a screenshot, the new Super Follow tweets tab will be visible on a user’s profile for those who offer paid content.

NOTE: The feature was likely discovered by reverse-engineering the app to find hidden features and security vulnerabilities, so while it’s possible this may come up as a feature in the future, there is no guarantee that it will.

When you need a home repair, like someone to fix a broken garage door, there’s a good chance you’ll do a Google search to find a nearby company to help. But the company that shows up at your door may not be the one you called. That’s because fake business listings are flooding the internet.

Google has decided that chains will be able to create Google Posts via the API on an on-going basis. This feature will not disappear once Covid abates as was previously noted in the current documentation.  It is noted in the current documentation, which was updated today, that both small businesses and chains can access the API for posts.

Beginning on October 1, 2021, Google will include a 2% “Regulatory Operating Cost” surcharge to advertisers’ invoices for ads served in India and Italy, according to an email sent to Google advertisers on Tuesday. The surcharge applies to ads purchased through Google Ads and for YouTube placements purchased on a reservation basis.

Pinterest today is increasing its investment in the creator community by introducing new tools that will allow creators to make money from their content. Now, creators will be able to tag products in their Idea Pins — a video-first feature the company first launched this spring — to make their content “shoppable.” They’ll also now be able to earn commissions through affiliate links and partner with brands on sponsored content, much like on other social platforms Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Creators can also add other features to their pins, like stickers or music, and tag other creators with their @username.

The new Idea Pins product tagging tool will roll out to all business accounts in the U.S. and U.K. Access will continue over the coming months to international creators.

TikTok is looking to refine its live-stream offering, with a set of new additions to provide more control for live broadcasters, as well as new discovery tools to better highlight in-progress live-stream content.

Here are some of the highlights:

• First off, TikTok is adding a new option which will enable broadcasters to assign ‘Live moderators’, being a person, or people, that can help them manage their streams.
• TikTok is also rolling out keyword filters for live-stream comments.
• TikTok’s also expanding its thoughtful comment reminders to live-streams, which could help to stop commenters from making potentially offensive remarks.
• TikTok’s also rolling out a new option that will enable streamers to temporarily mute viewers or remove unkind or harmful comments, which will be available both to hosts and assigned moderators in the coming months.
• Live-streams are set to play a key role in TikTok’s next stage, with the platform already experimenting with live-stream shopping options, which will provide more capacity for brands and influencers to monetize their TikTok following.