| | Is this truly the beginning of the end for Google’s blue links?
Google yesterday published a blog post which summarised some significant updates to the user experience of its AI search.
In the US, the search giant is starting to organise search results pages using AI. The example from Google shows a search for ‘vegetarian appetizer ideas’ delivering a page full of card-based carousels featuring various recipe and ingredients ideas.
This full-page experience will roll out to other topics soon (beyond food) and include diverse content formats, such as video, articles and forums. Google claims that testing has shown these pages to be more helpful for searchers.
Elsewhere in the update, you can now use video to search through Google Lens, and ask questions as you film what’s happening in front of you. There’s also an update to Lens’ ability to show visually similar products – now bringing in more accurate product information, reviews and pricing, to get people to the exact item they have snapped.
And perhaps most significantly for marketers, ads are rolling out in AI Overviews in the US. Alongside more ‘organic’ links being included in Overviews, Google is evidently doing its best to assure publishers that AI summaries can deliver traffic to their websites.
Related reading: AI Overviews are ‘problematic for marketers’: Why mid-funnel content is the right response
Cloudflare helps website owners control how AI models access their content
Cloudflare has released a set of tools called AI Audit, to let content creators understand and control how AI model providers are accessing their website.
Intriguingly, the cloud company also says that it has a solution in development which will allow website owners to “set a fair price for their content that is used by AI companies for model training and retrieval augmented generation (RAG),” and then to “transact seamlessly”.
Cloudflare’s press release says many businesses, of all sizes, don’t currently have the ability to understand how their content is being ‘scanned’, but it also highlights small sites as the ones that often lack “the skills or bandwidth to manually block AI bots”. The issue of model training and copyright is set to rumble on.
Related reading: Our resources on AI.
Nike’s quarterly revenue down 10% (D2C down 13%) but turnaround is afoot
Nike has become the latest cautionary tale for ‘short’ over ‘long’, with its falling sales chewed over by many in the industry who cite the sports company’s pull back from wholesale, slowing product innovation and a fraying of the way the brand story connects with sport.
CFO Matthew Friend has given some detail on how Nike is turning the ship around, referencing success in North America, where the company has been investing in its running brand and seen “double-digits” growth in sales through running speciality partners.
As Marketing Week reports, Friend described how Nike will create “deeper connections with consumers through sport”, which will then allow the brand to “extend into sportswear and lifestyle”. |
Fast Track to Ecommerce: Partners and Platforms – Next intake: 8 October 2024
This Fast Track is designed specifically for organisations that sell through retail partners and third-party platforms, to upskill teams of one to one thousand, all included in the Econsultancy membership.
The Fast Track empowers learners to: Navigate indirect ecommerce and optimise partner relationships Master product data and dominate the digital shelf Understand the online shopper and win the path the purchase |
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| The Marketing Capability Leaders Forum - 2025
January 23rd, Waterloo, London, 9am GMT
At Econsultancy HQ, we’ll be hosting our Q1 meet-up for senior leaders in marketing and ecommerce. You’ll hear from a panel of marketing leaders as they reveal how they have navigated transformation, placing capability at the heart of their strategies.
Please note, the forum is invite-only, so registrations are subject to approval. |
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| The Annual Awards are back to celebrate excellence in commercial creativity and design. Enter your projects now to recognise the achievements of your team, see how your work fares against the very best, and impress your clients. Early Bird Deadline - 25 October. |
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Optimising the Retail Media Opportunity
Part of the Ecommerce channel, this learning plan, includes three courses and a scenario-based assessment. Course 1: Approaching Retail Media Ad Investment Course 2: Activating Retail Media Sponsored Product Ads Course 3: Activating Retail Media Product Display Ads Assessment: Test your Retail Media Learning |
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