Google Pixel 3 featured on Saturday Night Live in half sketch, half ad
If you caught Saturday Night Live last weekend, you’ll have seen a Google Pixel 3 clip that blurs the line between straight-up ad and a sponsored sketch.
Google AdWords announces ban on all cryptocurrency-related ads
In an effort to protect consumers, Google has announced a new policy for AdWords relating to cryptocurrency. Basically, cryptocurrency ads are over.
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Russian use of Google services to interfere in 2016 US election detailed, preventive measures unveiled
Ahead of tomorrow’s Congressional hearings, Google has published its findings on Russian interference related to the 2016 U.S. election. In several reports, Google provided an overview of how a Russian-linked organization used Ads, YouTube, and other services to spread information, as well as upcoming steps to counteract it.
Google Marketing Next 2017 keynote livestream scheduled for May 23
Announced on the Google Developers blog, the Google Marketing Next 2017 keynote livestream now has an official date and time: Tuesday, May 23rd at 9:00 a.m. PT. You can register to watch the livestream (although that’s not exactly necessary to do so) over at Google’s website.
Google Contributor in its current form will be discontinued in January, new version coming soon
Google powers a massive number of ads around the internet, but just like any other ads on the web, they can get just a bit annoying. Back in 2015, Google introduced Contributor, a pay-per-month program which replaced AdSense ads on any website while still pushing revenue to the site owner. Today, however, Google is closing that program, at least temporarily.
Google to ban ads for ‘payday loans’ and other lending at extortionate interest-rates
Google Adwords will be banning ads for so-called ‘payday loans’ and other lending at very high interest rates. As of July 13th, Google will no longer accept ads for loans that have to be repaid within 60 days, or any loan with an APR exceeding 36%.
The change was announced on Google’s Public Policy Blog.
When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable payment and high default rates […] This change is designed to protect our users from deceptive or harmful financial products.
Google also shared a stat on action taken against harmful ads in general …
Google extends accidental click protections to native ads on mobile
As Sundar Pichai said in the 2016 Founders’ Letter, advertising allows Google’s services to be free. At the same time, it cares about delivering high quality ads and nothing ruins the experience more than accidental clicks. In a blog post, the company delved into various measures that prevent accidental clicks and announced it was extending click protections to native ads on mobile.
This week’s top stories: Galaxy Note 6 leaks, Huawei P9, HP Chromebook 13 & hands-on w/new Android phones
In this week’s top Google stories: new Android device news surrounding the Galaxy Note 6, the death of the Nexus 9, Huawei’s upcoming P9 flagship, and more. And we went hands-on with LeEco’s new Snapdragon 820-powered Le Max2 w/ 6GB of RAM, the BlackBerry PRIV running Android Marshmallow, and the Oppo F1 Plus in this week’s top videos.
In addition, HP and Google launched the impressive new Chromebook 13, and a handful of notable Google and Android app updates arrived as well as news of a completely overhauled design for Instagram in testing.
Head below for all of the quick links to this weeks top stories, videos and more.
Google’s new six second ‘Bumper’ ads on YouTube cannot be skipped
After announcing a new ad platform for television last week, Google is launching a new six second “Bumper” video ad format for YouTube. Aimed at “snackable” videos consumed on smartphones, Bumpers cannot be skipped over.
Live TV listings coming to search results as Google announces new ad platform for video
Following big Google Cloud announcements at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show earlier this week, the company is announcing a new ad platform to monetize and personalize video content, as well as that live TV listings are coming to Search results.
Canada ends investigation into anti-competitive search and ad practices by Google
With imminent troubles looming in Europe, Canada just closed its three year investigation into anti-competitive practices involving Google’s search and advertising business (via The Verge). The country’s Competition Bureau ultimately “did not find sufficient evidence” that Google’s practices harmed local rivals.
Google shows off redesigned AdWords experience, currently invite-only
Google is today showing off redesigned apps for its AdWords advertising service that it says bring a completely reimagined experience based on user feedback.
The Google Analytics 360 Suite is an enterprise-class tool for larger marketers
A multi-screen world poses a great challenge to developers creating a consistent experience for consumers. It is equally hard for marketers to track the effectiveness of their advertisement campaigns. With the Analytics 360 Suite, Google hopes to provide an enterprise-class solution that integrates several data and marketing analytics products.
Android gaming gets a boost w/ streaming game demos, indie apps collection, & gameplay recording/streaming
Google is announcing several big Android gaming updates at this year’s Game Developers Conference. A majority of them will be user facing, like app streaming and more social features in Play Games, while others will help developers market and add new features to their games.
Revamped Google Contributor now starts at $6.99 to see fewer ads on the web
Google Contributor allows readers to pay a monthly fee to see fewer ads on the sites they visit. Ads are either outright removed or replaced with a thank you message. The service launched in 2014 and was opened up to those in US last year. Today, Contributor is getting a revamp that sets the starting monthly fee users can pay to $6.99.
RIP Flash: Google display ads will be all HTML5 by January 2017
Google announced on its AdWords G+ profile today that its display ads will soon be 100% HTML5. From June 30th this year, display ads built using Flash can no longer be uploaded into AdWords or DoubleClick Digital Marketing. From January 2nd, 2017, Flash format display ads will no longer run on the Google Display Network or through DoubleClick.
These are the most popular Super Bowl 50 Ads on YouTube
YouTube and its YouTube AdBlitz channel are always popular destinations for watching Super Bowl ads that will air on TV during and online leading up to the game– and this year even an alternative half-time show. Following yesterday’s Super Bowl 50 with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos, YouTube has now shared some data on what the most popular ads were this year based on views as of this morning, and we’ve embedded the list in video form below for easy viewing…
Google seemingly kicking standalone ad-blockers from the Play Store
Update: VentureBeat received information from a source, shedding a little more light on the situation.
A source close to the situation indicates that Google considers this a “unique case” because two apps are required to invoke the ad blocking. Furthermore, the source adds that Google has no problem with browsers which can block ads within themselves via built-in functionality (like Adblock Browser) or via plugins.
Earlier in the week, Samsung’s new browser API meant developers, if they wanted to, could build ad-blocking apps to work alongside the browser. It’s similar to the ad-blocking feature Apple introduced in iOS 9 with Safari, which lead to a number of ad and tracker-blocking apps become popular within the first few weeks of iOS 9’s arrival.
With this feature added, more developers could develop standalone ad-blockers for Android which work with Samsung‘s mobile browser. It turns out however, that Google has pulled some apps, and rejected updates for others. It seems the company isn’t keen on having standalone apps — designed to work alongside browsers to block ads — on the Play Store…
Accelerated Mobile Pages will support ads in time for next month’s launch
Next month’s launch of Accelerated Mobile Pages on Google Search will support ads right out of the gate. AMP, an industry effort to speed up and improve mobile web pages, has garnered the support of many tech companies and publications. The latter will have full control over ads on AMP pages and get accompanying statistics.
Google blocked more than 17M fake ‘software system warning’ ads, 12.5M misleading medicinal ads in 2015
Google has published a blog post revealing just how many bad ads it removed from the web in 2015. Spoiler: they removed a lot.
There can be all kinds of bad ads, whether they’re ads which falsely claim to help weight loss, or phishing sites that trick unassuming web users to submit personal information. Thanks to a team of some 1,000 employees, and some clever computer algorithms, the company was able to remove a ton of ads and ban a huge number of misbehaving advertisers…
Clever new ‘Be together. Not the same.’ Android ad features finger people
Android’s “Be together. Not the same” tagline was adopted with the launch of 5.0 Lollipop last October. The phrase reflects how Android has a unified experience across a range of different devices. Several good ads have come out of it, and Google is continuing them with a new ad released over the weekend.
Google exec predicts its cloud business will bring in more revenue than ads within 5 years
Google over the past several months has spoken a lot about its ever-growing cloud business. It recently dropped prices across the board for its Cloud Platform, and now one Google executive believes the business will soon grow to outpace revenue brought in by the company’s ad division…
Google launches official DoubleClick for Publishers Android app
Google has finally launched an Android app for its DoubleClick for Publishers customers. This way, those who use the service to serve or sell ads will be able to keep on top of their performance without being tied to a desktop. If you are a DoubleClick for Publishers user, you’ll be able to monitor network performance by measuring several key metrics, including impressions, clicks, click ratios and CPM as well as individual advertisement performance.
All in all, it’s a pretty simple app, but potentially very useful to DFP customers. The description itself says nothing but the following:
Provides a high-level overview of a DFP network’s performance. The data is displayed in a series of cards, which contain information associated with what’s happening in your DFP network.
As you’d expect, it’s a free download from the Play Store. It’s compatible with any Android device running 4.0.3 or later.
Yahoo will now show Google search results after signing deal
Yahoo announced in its financial earnings results for Q3 that it has signed a partnership deal with Google to show search results and ads in its own search tools. The deal came in to effect on October 1st and will last until the end of 2018. Under the terms of this new deal, Yahoo gets to choose which search queries it sends to Google, while Google provides search ads, algorithmic search and image search services for mobile and desktop…
