They Are Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together

Today's News

• Google: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

• Brands Go Big On E-Commerce for Prime Day

• Adtech Firms Face the Aftermath of a Cookieless Fu …

• Threads Comes for X with ‘Loops’

• YouTube Unveils New Shorts Updates

• X Won’t Remove Nonconsensual Nude Images: Report

Google: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Could Google’s reign be over?

The U.S. government now says it wants the tech giant broken up to curb its monopoly over internet search and advertising.

Yesterday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and several state attorneys general submitted a sweeping proposal to rein in Google’s dominance, which could result in the first major corporate breakup in four decades.

DOJ’s big moves

The DOJ's proposed remedies present several options, from behavioral restrictions to more drastic structural measures.

The focus is on four key areas:

• Search Distribution: Limiting Google’s dominance by restricting default search deals, pre-installed software, and revenue-sharing agreements. They’re also exploring splitting off Chrome, Play, or Android from Google, and limiting Google’s control over new AI-powered search technologies.

• Data Access and Usage: Google may be required to share its search index, data, and AI models with competitors while ensuring transparency in search results, features, and ad rankings. Privacy concerns would limit Google's use of certain data, and the DOJ aims to reduce the costs for rivals to index and store data.

• Extending Search Monopoly: Restricting Google’s contracts that block rivals from accessing web content, and let publisher sites opt out of having their data used for AI training or appearing in Google’s AI products.

• Advertising Practices: The DOJ proposes scaling back Google’s ad tools and exploring options for licensing its ad feed separately from search. It also calls for increased transparency for advertisers by providing detailed auction and monetization data.

Google’s response

Google responded in a blog post late last night, describing the proposal as “radical and sweeping” and warning that it could lead to “negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America’s consumers.”

Brands Go Big On E-Commerce for Prime Day

Wonder how your holiday budgets stack up against the competition? A new study from consultancy firm McKinsey & Company yesterday revealed that more than half of brands ramp up their e-commerce budgets for Amazon Prime Day.

Brands identified as 'leading' (growing 10% faster than their sector's average) are also investing more than $100 million in e-commerce technology and recruiting tech talent to secure a greater share of sales during the holiday marketing season.

Holiday spending trends

As online sales are projected to account for a quarter of global sales by 2025, brands are stepping up their investments.

• 7 out of 10 brands plan to increase their e-commerce spending for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, while two-thirds are focusing on the end-of-year holiday season.

• More than a quarter plan to increase spend by more than 20% during this critical time.

Revenue generation

• The study found that more than 40% of leading brands generate at least 10% of their annual e-commerce revenue from holiday events like Black Friday.

• While a quarter of laggards (defined as brands growing at an average rate) opt-out.

Investment in e-commerce tech

The study found that 1 in 5 leading brands are spending more than $100 million on e-commerce technology. 

• These brands are prioritizing generative AI, with nearly a fifth making it their top e-commerce focus.

• While 1 in 3 are planning to put more than 10% of their e-commerce budget towards gen AI in the next 12 months.

Hiring trends

The study also found that leading brands are hiring technical talent, with leaders increasing investment in roles like data engineers and software developers by 50% more than laggards.

Leaders believe that in-house capabilities will be vital for success over outsourcing to third-party agencies or contractors, according to the study.

Adtech Firms Face the Aftermath of a Cookieless Future

For four years, adtech firms have been preparing for Google’s cookiepocalypse. Now, as the dust settles from Google’s recent decision to cancel the phase-out of third-party cookies, these firms find their investments in a cookieless future hanging in limbo.

ADWEEK has an interesting thinkpiece today about these companies that are still waiting for returns on their money, time, and labor.

The waiting game

The Chief Product Officer at the adtech company, TripleLift, noted that while their first-party cookieless solution is designed for both environments, adoption is slower than anticipated.

• The changing landscape has prompted businesses to rethink their strategies and investments, with many ad buyers reporting a significant decline in interest and communication about cookieless solutions.

• One ad buyer lamented the fading sales pitches for cookieless solutions, noting their inbox is now overwhelmed with AI offers instead.

As firms grapple with shifting timelines and uncertainty, resources, once dedicated to Google’s Privacy Sandbox, have also been dramatically cut.

• The adtech company Raptive indicated that investments in cookieless technologies for Privacy Sandbox have plummeted from 20% to a mere 5%.

Tapping the cookieless market

While third-party cookies are still in play, many users access the web via mobile devices or browsers like Safari that have long abandoned third-party cookies.

Reports indicate that about half of the web is currently unaddressable to advertisers due to this trend.

Adweek notes that investing in solutions to tap into this cookieless audience can pay off.

• For instance, Index Exchange said that using LiveRamp’s identity solution, RampID, on cookieless browsers results in an estimated 144% increase in cost per thousand (CPM) impressions, compared to supply without an ID present.

Threads Comes for X with ‘Loops’

Meta's Threads appears to be taking on its competition with X, with a new, in-development feature called 'Loops,' that lets users better organize their discussions on the platform by topics.

How it works

• With the feature, Threads users will be able to incorporate their individual Threads into a Loop, connecting them to specific topical communities.

• While it's unclear whether these Threads will also appear on users' main timelines, it seems that users will be able to join these Loops to receive more relevant updates in their Threads feed.

This is similar to X’s Communities, which lets users join different topic groups and have those specific posts highlighted in the app.

According to recent updates to the back-end code of the Threads app, Loop communities are set to get several functional options, including the capacity to join, leave, add user-specific detail, etc.

However, Meta told TechCrunch this feature is still in the early stages of development and not yet ready for live testing.

YouTube Unveils New Shorts Updates

YouTube is doubling down on short-form video, the platform announced several new Shorts updates for brands and creators yesterday.

Shorts templates

First, it’s launched an updated version of its Shorts templates, which lets users recreate or repurpose more elements of existing Shorts.

• Previously, creators could only remix single elements, such as songs or effects.

• But now, they can replicate or build on attributes from any existing video they’ve watched, including audio segment timing and text.

  

YouTube’s also expanding its song snippets feature for Shorts, letting users opt into receiving notifications when the full song is released.

Less shorts

In response to concerns about Shorts overloading users’ feeds, YouTube has implemented a new toggle option, which lets viewers decrease the frequency of Shorts clips being show in-stream.

While this could lead to fewer views for your brand's content, YouTube anticipates minimal impact, suggesting that those who opt for fewer Shorts aren’t frequent viewers.

Finally, on the non-Shorts front, YouTube Studio Mobile now supports landscape view on both Android and iOS.

X Won’t Remove Nonconsensual Nude Images: Report

A new study has found that X will remove nude images within hours — but only if the report is about copyright infringement.

A Troubling Result

The study, from the University of Michigan, uploaded 50 AI-generated nude images to X.

The researchers reported half as copyright violations and half as nonconsensual nudity.

• All images reported for copyright infringement were removed within 25 hours, with temporary suspensions for the posting accounts.

• But images reported as nonconsensual nudity remained on the site after three weeks, with no consequences for the posting accounts.

Why the Discrepancy?

It could be because there’s only federal law for one of those claims.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requires online platforms to promptly remove copyrighted material upon receiving valid takedown notices. This federal law incentivizes X to act quickly on copyright reports.

But in contrast, there is no clear legal incentive for X to act on images reported as nonconsensual nudes alone, despite state laws and attempts to pass a federal law.

A Call for Better Legislation

The researchers argue that new legislation is needed to define victim-survivor rights and impose legal obligations on platforms to remove harmful content swiftly.

They point to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as a good model that protects intimate privacy.

X did not respond to media inquiries.

But, you know, “free speech,” amirite?

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