Daily Minute Master Series – July 9, 2019

Social Media

Instagram Adds New Anti-Bullying Measures, Including Comment Warnings and User Restrictions

Instagram is adding a new automated warning which will prompt users when their comment may be considered offensive, giving them a chance to review before the post creator sees it. The new tool will be triggered by the use of certain words within comments, and will alert the user with a notification that asks if they’re sure that’s what they want to post. In addition to this, Instagram’s also testing a new ‘Restricted’ mode, which will give users a way to lessen the impact of certain users without alerting them to any such limitation. Restricted mode will mean that only you and the person you’re restricting can see their comments. That means, for one, that the user will still be exposed to such. Reducing their reach to others is still significant, but the damage can still be done by getting through to the user his or herself. It is important for Instagram to try new things, and their internal testing has likely highlighted potential benefit. It seems problematic, but it may provide increased capacity for protection, and lessen such impacts.

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Marketing

Amazon Adds Alexa ‘Skill Connections’

Amazon has added to its digital assistant Alexa the ability to enable a skill to use another skill to perform a specific task. The feature, called Skill Connections, is being added to the Alexa Skills Kit in all locations where Alexa is available. Skill Connections are now available for printing, booking a restaurant table or arranging transportation, according to Amazon. Every function previously had to be built within an individual skill.

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Google announces changes to environment, position targeting settings in DV360

In an effort to provide advertisers with more accurate and granular ad targeting options in Display & Video 360, Google will be launching a revamped experience for environment and position targeting settings on August 26, 2019. The changes will include updated targeting settings when creating or editing items individually or in bulk, updated dimensions in Reporting and a new version of Structured Data Files (SDF) to support the targeting overhaul. While the same targeting options will continue to exist, they will appear with the new targeting controls come August. Google said that the existing options were built to meet the needs of advertisers running display ads on desktop and mobile web. With the changes, advertisers will be able to “target their ads explicitly based on environment (app or web) and position (on screen or in content).” Once the changes are implemented, advertisers will be able to serve ads with a greater level of confidence across these newer contexts.

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Chrome lets users pay with credit cards saved in their Google accounts

Signed-in Chrome users can now use payment methods that are saved to their Google accounts during the checkout process, Google announced this week via the Chromium Blog. This feature is available on all devices that run the Chrome browser and wherever Google Pay is accepted. Google has been working to reduce friction for users to complete e-commerce transactions for several years, particularly on mobile. Its Shopping Actions already enables users to pay for products directly from Shopping ads using Google’s own checkout cart and the payment information saved in their Google accounts. This feature in Chrome could help increase the number of users who save their payment information with Google — and eventually increase the likelihood they’ll convert on Shopping Actions-enabled ads.

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