The new decade has started and there are already some exciting movements in the digital world, with a new video app AND a new search engine both being launched in the month of January.

To find out more about these two new platforms and get your first update of the decade, keep reading this month’s digital marketing round-up.

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Byte, a 6-second looping video app, launches on iOS and Android

A new social media app called Byte, created by a co-founder of Vine, is now available on iOS and Android. Byte aims to be a direct successor to Vine by letting users create and share 6-second looping videos, as well as browse through content on a decidedly minimalist user interface.

A new Search Engine enters the market – OneSearch from Verizon Media

An unlikely competitor enters the search engine market as Verizon Media launches its privacy-focused OneSearch.

OneSearch promises not to track, store, or share personal or search data with advertisers, which puts it in direct competition with DuckDuckGo. It’s available now on desktop and mobile at OneSearch.com. What differentiates Verizon Media’s OneSearch from DuckDuckGo, a more established privacy-focused search engine, is the ability for businesses to integrate it with their existing privacy and security products.

Now you can temporarily remove pages in Search Console

Google has announced that they’re launching a new version of the Removals report in Search Console, which enables site owners to temporarily hide a page from appearing in Google Search results. The new report also provides info on pages on your site that have been reported via other Google public tools.

Google responds to criticism regarding desktop search changes

Google has issued an official statement in response to widespread criticism of its recent changes to desktop search results.

Last month, Google updated the look of paid and organic search results on desktop. The most noticeable changes include favicons next to desktop search results, and a plain black “Ad” label next to paid results.

Google’s Dataset Search is officially out of Beta

Across the web, there are millions of datasets about nearly any subject that interests you. If you’re looking to buy a puppy, you could find datasets compiling complaints of puppy buyers or studies on puppy cognition. Or if you like skiing, you could find data on revenue of ski resorts or injury rates and participation numbers. Dataset Search has indexed almost 25 million of these datasets, giving you a single place to search for datasets and find links to where the data is. Over the past year, people have tried it out and provided feedback, and now Dataset Search is officially out of beta.

Google introduces a new shopping section in search results

Search has always let you find links to different products and stores, but starting January 15th in English in the U.S., you’ll begin to see clothes, shoes and accessories from across the web in one place on Search on your mobile device, so you can easily browse lots of different stores and brands at once.

YouTube launches Profile Cards

Twitter launches emoji reactions for direct messages

Twitter has announced the launch of its new Reactions-like option in direct messages, which enables users to allocate a quick emoji response to any message within a thread — similar to Facebook and Instagram.

Deadline extended to migrate to expanded Bing text ads

For the last two years, standard text ads could not be created or edited — but they could still serve to searchers if they were currently active. In April, Microsoft announced that standard text ads would no longer serve after 2019. However, to give advertisers more time to migrate, they’re extending the deadline to March 31, 2020.

Microsoft announces additional performance reporting for Bing Ads

Back in July, Microsoft announced the release of prominence metrics to provide clearer insights. Now, they’re announcing an additional update to ensure your performance reporting is even more reliable: the removal of average position.
In an effort to limit confusion and allow you to focus on just the key metrics that matter to you most, average position will be deprecated from performance reports beginning in April.

Save time and increase ad engagement with Microsofts’s Responsive Search Ads

RSAs are designed to work along with Expanded Text Ads to win new or previously competitive auctions by picking the most relevant content from up to 32 thousand combinations, making it easier to serve better ad copies and reach new customers. On average, advertisers have seen an increase of 10% in volume, 6% in CVR, and a decrease of 7% in CPA.

Now all advertisers worldwide can begin creating Responsive Search Ads through Microsoft Advertising online, Microsoft Advertising Editor, or with the Microsoft Advertising APIOpens in new window.

LinkedIn adds 3 new features to LinkedIn Pages

Features including Invite to follow, LinkedIn Live integration and new posting options can help you give your followers, customers and employees a better sense of the people and values behind your brand, so you can form stronger relationships.

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Thanks for checking out January’s Digital Marketing Round-up.

We’ll see you next month!

Photo Source: Danil Aksenov on Unsplash