SEO industry update for April
We are already quarter of the way through the year and already we have seen a number of changes which include the launch of Google media tools, a new update for Adwords and a new look for Bing’s android app.
Following its launch in October 2013 Google have finally launched media tools in 16 different languages including Spanish, Italian, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil & Portugal), Swedish, Dutch, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Polish, Czech, Russian, Korean and Japanese.
The tool was originally launched to help journalists find relevant information when researching and organising stories.
Go back in time with historical Street View
You can now go back in time and explore how your street looked in 2007 thanks to the launch of historical street view. Go back to the past and revisit neighbourhoods and see how they have changed through the years, and how cities have recovered after devastating events, such as Tohoku, Japan after the March 2011 earthquake and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
Get Google Trends updates in your e-mail
As a content writer, I personally find that Google Trends is a useful tool to see what people are searching for around the world. You can keep up with hot searches in real time, or take a historical look at trends dating back to 2004. You can “Subscribe” via e-mail to any search topic, Hot Searches for any country, or any U.S. monthly Top Chart.
Sharing your news content with Google Play Newsstand
Google Play Newsstand is a news and magazine reading app for Android phones and tablets that enables users to discover more of the content they love with a newsstand made for them. Google Play Newsstand is pre-installed on many Android devices; with over 1 billion devices and 1.5 million daily activations, Android is a growing ecosystem and a powerful content platform. Google Play Newsstand makes it easy for you to deliver a beautiful, high-quality digital content experience to your users, who are increasingly spending their time on smartphones and tablets. You can create your own Newsstand “edition,” customizing the look and feel with unique branding, and have access to ads and subscription revenue streams and millions of new readers. If you think this platform may be a good fit for your publication, learn more about how to get started here.
Bing updates
April 2014 witnessed a revamp for Bing’s Android app,claiming the updates make it more streamlined and “optimized for performance.”
According to the announcement on Bing’s search blog, the app is faster than its previous version, and now lets users track their Bing reward points natively within the app.
Bing reminded users how the new in-app reward point tracking will help them monitor their progress toward helping their favourite school, “With last week’s roll out of Bing for Schools, this is another great way to help your favourite school earn Surfaces.”
Yahoo
Yahoo revealed a small update in April replacing old Yahoo Local reviews with Yelp reviews with the old reviews no longer be available. They have also been testing a knowledge graph in the sidebar on some of its search queries.