9To5Google
Google's plans for its futuristic Mountain View campus will also become a "destination for the local community," which means an open-to-the-public campus with lots of green space and food stalls. Google's official offices will be located on the second floor. The plans are made possible as a result of a land swap with Linkedin, which Microsoft now owns. 9To5Google reports construction should last 30 months after the City Council approves the plans.
Marketing Dive
Urban Outfitters worked with Appboy and PlaceIQ using mobile location data to better understand consumer behaviors. The company used a variety of messaging channels like push notifications, email and in-app messages in a campaign that drove a 146% increase in revenue and 75% gain in conversions. The goal was to reach a specific demographic with a cocktail dress promotional campaign, targeting women who frequented bars and nightlife venues across the U.S.
Fortune
Google plans to discontinue Site Search, a product it has offered to Web publishers since 2008, sometime in spring of 2017, according to Fortune. The news went out via email to customers and partners Tuesday, but it was not announced publicly. Barb Darrow reports that Google charges customers based on the number of annual searches made on the platform. "A small blog, for example, would get 20,000 searches per year for $100," she writes. "A larger company might opt for 500,000 queries for $2,000 annually. Companies that wanted higher volumes of searches had to …
Arstechnica
In the UK, Google and Microsoft’s Bing are stepping up their efforts to combat piracy sites. “The tech giants have inked a voluntary code of practice with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Motion Picture Association following a series of talks overseen by the UK's copyright watchdog and steered by the department for culture, media, and sport,” ars technica reports.
Bing
Generating revenue, lead generation, in-store visits, generating phone calls and traffic to Web sites to build awareness are all common business goals. But how do marketers get there? Christi Olson lays out some tips for small to medium-sized businesses to help marketers get started. She tells marketers that it's not required to get started, but highly recommended. She provides tips that outline some of the goals and business models.
Business Insider
Nordstrom's decision to dump the Ivanka Trump brand may not have much to do with politics as much as it does on merchandise sales. Web site traffic doesn't necessarily turn into sales, but a quick view of page view traffic from engines show that Macy's far outranked Nordstrom when it came to the brand. As Business Insider notes, in December and January, Macy's had 60% more traffic to Ivanka Trump products than Nordstrom did, according to BI, citing Jumpshot's data.
TorrentFreak
Torrent Freak reports that Google "and other search companies" will voluntarily stop indexing torrent sites in search engine results after continuous negative feedback from entertainment companies whose executives insist the move will help prevent online piracy. Engines like Google have been flooded with take-down requests that demand the engine remove links to infringing content.
Reuters
A federal jury in Marshall, Texas has ordered Google to pay $20 million plus royalties to an investor and the family of the co-inventor for infringing on patents. The award that came down on Friday found that Google’s Chrome browser infringes on three patents covering a system for protecting computers from malware. Jan Wolfe of Reuters explains.
TechCrunch
Engineers at the real-time indexing tool company, Swiftype, think they not only solved the challenges of helping publishers offer better site search, but also helping people search across servers that sit in the cloud. Google recently launched a search platform, but Cloud Search only lets users search across its products. The one from Swiftype connects Dropbox, Office 365, Google’s G Suite, Zendesk and more. TechCrunch reports that the technology doesn't search for keywords, but rather interprets queries and understands that difference between contacts of recent docs even when the words are not used in the documents. Anthony Ha explains.
TechCrunch
In the age of artificial intelligence, where machines talk with machines, RankScience founder Ryan Bednar thinks functions that can be automated will become obsolete by humans and reported with machines that can do it all, according to TechCrunch. "So the pitch is: goodbye SEO dashboards and specialized in-house staff; and hello subscription software for automated testing and continuously optimized web pages," per TechCrunch.