Meta’s Muted Momentum

Meta Shuts Down Multiple Tech Products

Has Zuck been chasing the white whale when it comes to Meta's tech products?

Meta has reportedly made major changes to its product roadmap in order to cut costs. According to various reports yesterday, the tech giant has either abandoned or delayed several hardware projects, including;

1. Cea sing the development of its Apple Watch rival.

2. Stopping production of Portal, its smart display device, as a consumer product (Portal will continue to be developed for business use... for now).

3. And delaying the release of its upcoming AR glasses, which was initially planned for 2024. 

Meta is apparently going to prioritize releasing the second version of the glasses instead of what was supposed to be the first. The report also suggests that the company may not release the glasses for several years.

In response to the reports, CTO Andrew Bosworth clarified the company's plans for these products in a tweet yesterday. 

Quoting Bosworth:

So while Zuck might not have his Apple Watch moment, Meta is still working on wrist wearables, it’s just not a smartwatch, it’s wrist control for VR… And there’s no launch date in sight. Until then, the shelves at Meta's retail store may be a little empty. 

Twitter’s User Growth Goals

While Elon Musk is threatening to walk away from the Twitter deal, the company is gearing up for its biggest quarter of user growth yet, Reuters reports. 

According to an internal meeting, the platform aims to grow its monetizable daily active users by 13 million this quarter. This is the highest goal the team has ever set. However, Twitter's internal goal of 13 million exceeds Wall Street expectations, as analysts expect a growth of 9 million new users.

That said, the company indicated that it is on track to meet its goal and has currently achieved 8.5 million in user growth. 

The news comes after Musk warned Twitter that he might pull out of the $44 billion deal if it failed to provide data to allow him to independently verify the proportion of spam and fake accounts on the platform. Twitter responded by providing him access to their complete database of live tweets, which is calls the "firehose."

The Second-Hand Surge

New research from eBay ads has found that more UK consumers are choosing to shop second-hand to make ends meet as well as minimize their environmental impact. 

According to the report, almost a third of consumers are having to make more considered purchases to get better value for money, and a fifth are purchasing second-hand items to save money.

On top of that, a quarter of consumers said that they try to upcycle or repair their belongings before buying new, and one in five said that they frequently buy second-hand, upcycled or refurbished items.

The report found that on eBay searches for the keywords 'upcycled' and 'pre-owned' rose almost 40%, while searches for ‘second hand’ rose almost 25%, and 'repair kit’ over 20%.

The study suggests second-hand shopping and upcycling are also on the rise due to the increasing importance of sustainability, with almost a fifth of consumers saying shopping sustainably is "really important to them". In addition:

• 1 in 5 reported they are conscious of throwing items away when they could be repaired, and

• 1 in 5 said they try to avoid fast fashion brands or brands they consider unethical 

eBay also indicates that shoppers are actively looking for more environmentally friendly products – with searches for ‘biodegradable’ rising almost 60%.

How can your brand market to climate-conscious consumers? According to the report, the top factors sustainable shoppers look for when they are buying a product include;

• Sustainable packaging

• Shopping locally

• The recyclability of a product

• Product lifespan, and 

• A product’s sustainable credentials

LinkedIn's Event Boosts

LinkedIn announced yesterday it will be expanding its 'Boost' ad option to Events.

Similar to Facebook's boost process, this provides a quick way to amplify organic posts in the app. To advertise your LinkedIn Event, click the boost button on the Events page, select your target audience, and set your campaign schedule and budget. 

The ad features:

• Dates

• Location, and 

• Information on how to join the event

LinkedIn says it will also provide advertisers with insights into how many members clicked on or saw your boosted event ad, and/or registered for your event.

Images: LinkedIn

CDNs Don't Improve SEO: Google

There are several advantages of using a content delivery network for your web site. 

But, apparently getting you to rank higher isn't one of them. 

Google Search Advocate, John Mueller, was recently asked if there is any SEO benefit to hosting on a CDN. 

The short answer is no — Mueller said hosting on a CDN does not add any benefit as long as your host is fast. He noted that if your crawl activity is slow, speeding up your host or using a CDN can improve crawling and indexing, which can indirectly impact your rankings and your SEO.

That said, it still might not have much of an impact. 

Mueller said "I don’t think it would have a big effect on Google at all in regards to SEO. The only effect that I can imagine that something might happen is what users end up seeing," he added that "it is not something that matters in terms of SEO" if your server is fast already.

Google Ads Manager Updates

A couple of small updates to Google Ads Manager from this week to report. 

1. First, Google Analytics 4 integration with Google Ads Manager for web data is now in open beta. 

To view reporting on Google Analytics metrics and dimensions, you can use the Analytics report type.

1. Finally, more granularity is being added to the "Bid rejection reason" in both reporting and data transfer. 

Google says this is to account for recently introduced pricing and floor features, and to be more specific about scenarios that result in bid loss.