Search engine giant lately introduced a new update to its app, with which you can now organize Google app cards into two categories – interest and upcoming events.

Fred Brewin, the product manager of Google stated on Google search blog “Starting today, in the Google app on Android (and coming soon to iOS), your cards will be organized into two sections. A feed that keeps you current on your interests like sports, news, and entertainment, and a section for your upcoming personal info, like flights, appointments and more.”

As per Google, a user’s feed will now become more relevant as they keep on using Google.  Moreover, to make the feed personalized Google has also added a card that will allow users to choose topics specific to their interest, besides providing a customize option in settings.

The upcoming cards will work as a Dashboard, allowing users to list various things, such as daily schedule, event indicator, or even delivery updates, whose details app pulls from other Google products like Gmail, Hangouts, Google+, and more.

Here is the demonstration of Google’s newly upgraded card:

Due to a bug, AdWords Partners received an email stating, “You’ve lost your Search Ads specialization” and they have to prove their expertise to get it back.

The emails sent to AdWords Partners on October, 27^th are apparently triggered due to a bug. Steve Seeley, an internet marketer, tweeted with the screen shot of email and notified other AdWords partners by stating, “Not flip out if you got emails like this last night or this morning. It is a bug. Our entire status is blank.”

When observing their performance, AdWords partners got to see scores and spend fields empty.

Gianpaolo Lorusso, an Italy-based digital marketer said most probably it is a global bug, and will affect the US, Italy, Austria, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.

Later a spokesperson of Google told, “Due to a bug, we sent an inaccurate email to a number of agencies about their Partner status. We’re asking them to disregard these notices. We’re working to fix the issue and will let our partners know when it’s resolved.”

On October 30^th Google has resolved this issue, and informed the advertisers about the same through the email.

Bing has recently introduced a number of new search features to boost the education searches that aim at helping students and teachers learn new concepts of math and science in an interactive way. Their newly incorporated education searches cover wide range of topics including molecules, constellations, citations and royal ancestries. The search engine has also introduced games like “World of Word” and “Rubik’s Cube solver” into its search results.

Here’s the list of the educational searches that Bing has incorporated in its search results:

Constellation Searches: In search results for word “constellations” and constellation names, the search engine will display interactive view of constellation in their top results. The search engine will also display the position of stars in horizon using location technology.

Molecule Searches: Now, Bing users can find the 2-D structure of molecules for any of their query. Searches for molecules like “methane, c4h2 molecule or h2o molar mass” will display the interactive 2-D view of the molecules in their top results.

Ancestral Family Tree Searches: With this newly introduced feature users can find the ancestral family tree of prominent families of the world. For example, if users search for “Queen Elizabeth II family tree” they will get interactive ancestral family tree at the top of search results.

World of Words Game: The search engine has also introduced a word game named “World of Words”. With this game people can find interactive results at the top for searches like “words that start with a” and as complex as “words containing b and end with k”.

Citations Results: To help students and research scholars, Bing has developed a citation search that displays the major citation sources at the top of results. Search for “APA citation book” results as shown in the picture below:

Rubik’s Cube solver: Bing has introduced a virtual Rubik’s Cube game for their users. If users search with “Rubik’s Cube”, they will get the interactive Rubik’s Cube at the top of results. Here, users can play the game and also get the few steps solutions to solve the Rubik’s Cube.

Besides their recent educational tools, the search engine has also launched a periodic table in query results, apart from it a geometry calculator and an interactive times table were introduced earlier this year.

Google has recently introduced three new reports in the AdWords on cross-device activity, along with a reorganization of the Attribution section, under the Tools menu.

According to a Google/Ipsos study, the new reports are created to assist marketers track cross-device conversion path, including the ones that feature search ad clicks.

As six out of 10 online conversions in the US start on one device and end on another, so these new attribution reports can help marketers in tracking every cross-device activity that is featured from than one device in a conversion path.

The new cross-device activity reports introduced by Google, features:

• Devices: Provide a complete overview of the cross-device activity in your account.
• Assisting Devices: It shows assist levels and values by each device type, be it mobile, tablet, or desktop.
• Device Paths: Provides complete information about the top conversion paths for visitors who used more than one device before converting.

You can check in the screen shot above that the existing conversion, path and click analysis reports are now categorized under their own sections, within the Attribution reporting menu. As per the search engine giant, Google, the new reports and layout will be rolling out over the next several weeks.

Not just this, Google has also released benchmarks on cross-device conversion activity for search campaigns in the United States, Japan, Germany and Great Britain.

Search engine legends, Google and Yahoo have been noticed experimenting their new user interfaces.

One of the Google’s representatives, Ruben Gomez from All Google Testing recently captured search engine giant Google testing gray background on their homepage. Gomez even spotted Yahoo testing their top search bar.

Google homepage

A couple of week ago, Google changed the look of their search platform, when they introduced a grey color background for their homepage, instead of older white background. Now the search box is slightly larger than the older one with more space.

Check with the screen shot:

The white background version that users utilized so far:

Yahoo search bar test

Simultaneously, Yahoo is also playing with their user interface and currently they are testing a new search bar on the top of the page. The new bar is more spacious and larger than the older. The purple color drop out of the search box has been replaced with the magnifying glass icon.

Here is the screen shot:

The version that was live so far:

Earlier this month, many Webmasters reported that Google has been testing long text ads in the search results for numerous platforms. This report came out to be true on May 24^th 2016, when Google officially announced the availability of Expanded Text Ads for the advertisers later this year.

After removing right-side ads, Google now has the flexibility to show text ads with more characters so that they appear uniform across multiple devices. These expanded text ads will easily run across different devices and soon be optimized for smartphones.

On Tuesday 24^th May 2016, Google’s Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce, Sridhar Ramaswamy, in a blog post talked more about this and other news from Google Performance Summit, “These upgrades help your ads work harder across screens, especially for the on-the-go mobile consumer that wants to know exactly what you offer before tapping into your website.”

This updated ad format will now have two longer headlines of up to 30 characters and a description of up to 80 characters long.

Moreover, the display URL can also include up to two directory paths, which can be effectively utilized by the advertisers to describe the landing page content. One does not need to match the landing page URL.

Here are the features that are being changed by the Google.

Further stating, Mr. Ramaswamy said, “This deviation from the 25-35-35 character format that has perhaps been the only constant throughout AdWords’ 15-year history will be a big change for advertisers. We encourage you to start planning for this upgrade before it rolls out later this year.”

A few days back, Google confirmed that they have rolled out an update for their mobile search results.  Now, if any user’s search query has local intent, and it shows up the “3-pack” or “local pack” in the search results, then search engine giant might offer users additional search filters for that query.

Below is an example for search la bella. Here Google has provided additional filters option to show results “within 5 miles,” or “open now,” or “top rated,” or even more. Moreover, depending on the location of the searcher, one might see “pizza”, “hair salon” and other options. These search filters on the local pack provide searchers additional dynamic filters based on the query, searcher’s location and their history.

Here is the screen shot for the search “la bella” from iPhone, which shows the filter bubbles below the map, but above the listings.

Search engine giant, Google, recently introduced a new feature in Google AdWords that will automatically apply recommended bids when setting up categories in AdWords dynamic search ad (DSA) campaigns.

A few days back, Google clarified marketers about their new roll out of bidding in AdWords. With this update, Google AdWords will now automatically apply recommended bids in dynamic search ad (DSA) campaigns while setting up the categories.

It looks terrifying, but marketers will have the opportunity to override these automated recommended bids when it comes to setting up new categories.

Through this new feature, marketers will get benefitted in easily setting up a lot of dynamics search ad categories quickly and efficiently, without any hassle.

Talking more about this new feature, one of the representatives of Google stated, “For example, if you have four categories selected: “sandals,” “running shoes,” “loafers,” and “flip flops,” you no longer have to manually set bids for each one. You can also adjust recommended bids or leave the field empty to use the ad group’s default bid.”

These automatic bid recommendations are based on the performance of the existing keywords that target similar search queries. This means that the bid recommendations are based on the Google AdWords account activities and thus needs to be absolutely reviewed by the marketers before launching the new campaign. Besides this, individuals will also have the opportunity to review everything and adjust bid as per their needs. Here is the picture showing this new feature of Google AdWords.

Google App Streaming is now showing up in the Android Google App search results. Individuals can now preview the apps before downloading them, directly from the search results.

Last year in November 2015, search engine giant, Google prototyped app streaming on a few selected apps. But, now it appears like the app streaming feature is available for most of the apps in the Google mobile search results.

The requirements for utilizing this feature apply: Individuals must be running Android L or greater and should be on Wi-Fi when searching within the Google Search App. The app that comes up may have a button “Try Now” adjacent to the green “Install” button. On clicking the “Try Now” button, the app streaming starts right on your device – in real time.

The ability of app streaming is that it allows individuals to try the app before installing it on the device.

The picture below represents the results for a search on [word search]:

When the button “Try Now” is clicked, an app streamer is launched that allows users to utilize the app for a limited time duration:

Users can easily see a text message appearing at the bottom that reads, “App streamed by Google (beta).” On clicking the banner present at the bottom, users will see options like to install the app, learn more about app streaming, go back to the Google search results or close out the window.

The user interface looks similar to the examples from November, but now it looks like it is working for many apps under the conditions mentioned above.

Social Media Giant, Facebook, recently introduced a new audience optimization tool that allows advertisers to target organic posts to their specific audiences. This tool has the ability to make posts more relevant in people’s news feeds that are being displayed to Facebook users may keep them engaged.

While making a Facebook post, users will soon get an option to add interest tags. Through these tags, Facebook will then prioritize the content in the news feeds of the people who share same interests and tastes.

Social media giant stated that there is a slight difference between this new audience optimization tool and the existing Interest Targeting feature, which doesn’t restrict the post’s reach unless stopped by the user.

Talking more about this new development, one of the Facebook’s staff members stated, “You can exclude sub-sections of your audience from seeing certain posts if that’s how you want to target them. For example, if you’re going to publish something that would only be relevant to your local area, you can exclude non-locals from seeing it. In addition to location, you can also restrict posts based on language, age, or gender.”

This feature comes along with new audience insight capabilities and allows advertisers to check the performance of the post with breakdowns of total reach by interest tag. The data received from the reach and engagement metrics for each interest tag can help advertisers in targeting the right audience for their future posts. Plus, it can also help in knowing the segments of the audience that one might have not ever thought to engage with.

Adding to the statement, the representative stated, “The variety and amount of content available to people is growing, so having more information about who is likely to be interested in your content helps us get your posts to the people who will care about them most.”

Here the following steps that can help individuals in enabling the tool before accessing it.

• Go to your Page.
• Click ‘Settings’ in the top right hand corner.
• Click ‘General’ in the tab column on the left side of the page.
• Find the row labeled ‘Audience Optimization for Posts’ in the middle of the page and click ‘Edit.’.
• Check off the box that allows you to begin using the feature.

The Audience Optimization tool will be available for English language pages pretty soon through the page post composer, graph API, third-party publishing tools, and Instant Articles.

Bing recently dropped two features from its own Bing Ads Intelligence, but they will be present in the web based user interface.

Recently, Bing made an announcement that they are eradicating two features from Bing Ads Intelligence. The two features that advertisers will not be noticing from the New Year are Auction Insights and the Opportunities tabs.

Though being dropped from Bing’s Ads Intelligence, these features will still be present and available within the Bing Ads web user interface.

Advertisers can track Auction Insights feature in the “Details” drop-down menu in the Campaigns, Ad Groups and Keywords tabs. They can also export them. Here is the picture showing Auction Insights in Details menu.

While Broad Match Opportunities can be found in the “Opportunities” in Bing Ads web based user interface.

For those looking for more information about these changes can visit Bing’s official blog.

Still in the process, AMP pages are all set to see their public debut in Google search in early 2016.

Google has recently announced that “soon in the upcoming year” it is planning to support fast-loading AMP within Google search.

AMP implies Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is a project that is backed by Google and has gained huge support from publishers, platforms like Twitter, analytics tools and  even from advertising networks and platforms.

Google has recently introduced a specialized version of Google search to check how AMP pages work. But, now Google is saying that the main thing  would be coming to regular Google searches soon in the year 2016. From a post that the company made today:

Google will be starting to send traffic to your AMP pages in Google Search in the start of the coming year 2016 and they are also planning to share more details related to timings very soon.

Meanwhile, the AMP Project invites everyone from all over the globe to take part in the discussion on GitHub, and also inspires you to begin experimenting with building AMP pages as soon as possible.