SEO
Yelp is suing Google
Yelp has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google over local search dominance, with the lawsuit alleging Google has illegally used its search monopoly to harm competition.
The anticompetitive conduct Yelp is accusing Google of includes:
· Driving revenue and traffic away from rivals such as Yelp
· Making it hard for competitors to achieve scale
· Increasing costs for rivals
If you want to find out more about the lawsuit and what it might mean for Google, read Search Engine Journal’s full blog here.
Social Media
Meta
threads
Threads continues to see robust growth and has remained in the top 10 most downloaded apps in July. While this is normal for Meta, which will regularly see a handful of its apps in the top 10, it’s especially important to see Threads in this list, as for almost an entire year after its launch, it wasn’t in the top 10.
This indicates that traction for the app has been increasing, while other data also shows X is losing users in some regions, such as Brazil, where it has just been banned by the Government.
Did somebody say new creative tools? Instagram certainly did, and it gives us more ways to ‘express’ ourselves. You can expect to see new fonts, text animations and effects in reels and stories.
Instagram has also given us the ability to add text and stickers to photos and carousels, as well as increasing the image carousel limit to up to 20 photos and videos in a single post! For more information about this, read Instagram’s full blog here.
Snapchat
The platform’s latest updates may be nostalgic to some or may feel retro/old to others…
Firstly, Snapchat is trying to recapture the love for Bitstrips, the originating format of Bitmoji, which you may remember, was huge in the past.
Snapchat said: “Our community has long loved Bitmoji Stories as a way to stay connected with fun, comic-strip style stories. Now, we’re bringing brand-new episodes to Snapchatters featuring our 3D Bitmoji avatar for even more personalized content starring you and your friends.”
Snapchat has also recently added lyric stickers so users can sing along with Snaps, and Snapchat+ subscribers can now pick customised ringtones for each of their friends or group chats.
It’s interesting to see another social platform adding more music-based features, with TikTok feeling like a pioneer of music and social integration in some ways – with artists such as Noah Kahan proclaiming the platform helped to boost their careers.
As always, should you need any social support, please get in touch.
