Google: AR + Commerce + Healthcare = Profit?

Microsoft's Edge Browser Goes For E-Commerce

Microsoft Edge, its new web browser, has always tried to position itself as the best browser for shopping. 

They've had built-in features like coupons that automatically look for available deals, and price comparisons across different websites. 

This does work, but it's not particularly smart. I tried it again this morning on my Amazon account, looking at a 6TB backup drive I bought recently — sure enough, the address bar flashed "Better deals available" and when I clicked it, it showed me three cheaper prices for that drive on another retailers' site — but all three were sold out.

Today, Microsoft added to that feature set — adding Bing Rebates to the Edge browser.

People just need to be signed into their Microsoft Rewards account and have Bing Rebates enabled. 

Then, they just shop and earn cash back from 1200 or so retailers in the program.

They've also added a really cool integrated Price History feature.

It tracks the price on a variety of shopping sites and shows users the historical online prices to help people see if there's a cheaper time to buy. 

Only 9 retailers are supported right now, but they include Amazon, Etsy, and Best Buy.

Twitter's Subscription Plan is Almost Here

We may be days or hours away from Twitter's new monthly subscription plan. Don't panic, this doesn't mean Twitter will cost money to use — but they will be charging for a kind of Twitter Plus, of sorts. 

If the reverse-engineer people are right, it'll be called Twitter Blue, cost $2.99 US per month, and will include the ability to undo a tweet in the seconds after posting it, a reader mode, a way to organize saved tweets into collections, change the mobile app icon's colour, and a bit more.

One thing apparently not on that list — the one thing every user has been asking for: An Edit Tweet button. 

Also on Twitter, this morning the company announced that they have once again stopped accepting applications for account verification. Apparently that blue checkmark is so sought-after that they've been swamped by requests. 

They promise they'll resume again when they can. Quoting their tweet:

Social Platform Updates

A couple of updates to social media platforms.

Agorapulse

First, Agorapulse now has a Canva integration. You access it in the publish window. If you're already logged into Canva with your browser, that authentication will carry into Agorapulse. All your designs and assets from Canva will be there.

They've also upgraded their optional Power Reports add-on — in addition to speed improvements, you can now create custom reports with more than 5 social profiles.

And Smart Label suggestions.

Once you pick the option to create a label report, it will suggest similar labels for you. Labels are a great way to group posts and comments together by topic or campaign or sentiment, or whatever you like.

Finally, their mobile app got a facelift and some new options like being able to crop images and get content recommendations.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social has also had some upgrades this month — they added Canva as well, you can now task incoming reviews to team members, and finally they support surfacing comments that show up on the Facebook campaign types: Dynamic Creative Optimization, and Placement Asset Customization.

Google's AR Can Detect Skin Conditions

I'm tellin' ya. AR — augmented reality — is going to be the next big thing in our digital marketing landscape.

And, if you sell products that treat skin conditions — check this out: Google AR can now identify common skin conditions.

Quoting the company:

And it's more than skin — it's been approved in Europe to detect diabetic eye disease or lung cancer in CT scans.

The tech has not been approved by American health regulators as a diagnostic tool, but Google claims:

SIGNUP: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/dermatologyaiearlytester/

Instagram Reels on Desktop... Because TikTok

And finally, Instagram appears to be working on letting people view Reels on the web. You know, like TikTok does.