Learn why omnichannel retail advertising is the key to creating a consistent, connected experience for shoppers across all platforms.

In today’s digital age, shoppers are constantly moving between channels—browsing on mobile, researching on desktop, checking social media, and streaming their favorite shows. For retail marketers, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. To succeed, you need to be present across every touchpoint, seamlessly connecting with customers wherever they are in their buying journey. 

Enter omnichannel retail advertising: the key to creating a consistent, connected experience for shoppers across all platforms. By tapping into the power of multiple channels like display, online video, connected TV (CTV), native, mobile in-app, social media, and audio, you can engage customers at every stage, from awareness to conversion—and even build long-term loyalty.

The modern shopper’s journey is rarely linear

A potential customer might discover your brand through a display ad, research products on their phone, engage with your social media posts, and ultimately make a purchase after seeing a video ad on CTV. Each interaction matters, and creating a cohesive experience across all these touchpoints can greatly enhance the likelihood of conversion.

Omnichannel advertising ensures that your message is consistent and relevant no matter where the customer is. It allows you to reach them with personalized, targeted ads that speak to their preferences and buying behavior, ultimately driving better results and improving customer retention.

Expanding your reach across every channel

With shoppers jumping from platform to platform, relying on just one or two advertising channels is no longer enough. To stay top of mind and drive conversions, retail marketers must adopt a truly omnichannel approach that includes the following key channels:

Display Ads: Capture attention across a variety of websites and keep your brand visible as shoppers browse the web. Display ads are essential for building brand awareness and staying in front of potential customers.  

Video Advertising: Bring your brand story to life with high-impact video ads that engage shoppers on streaming video sites. Video content offers an immersive way to connect with your audience, driving higher engagement and recall.

Connected TV (CTV): Reach cord-cutting audiences in premium, less cluttered environments. CTV advertising allows you to deliver impactful ads while people stream their favorite content on smart TVs, often leading to stronger brand association and conversion.

Audio Ads: Target listeners while they’re tuned into podcasts or music streaming services. Audio ads provide an intimate, distraction-free environment to capture attention and build brand affinity.

AI technology: finding the right shoppers at the right time

One of the biggest challenges of omnichannel advertising is ensuring you’re reaching the right audience with the right message, no matter the channel. This is where AI-powered technology becomes essential. Platforms like Quantcast use real-time data and AI-driven insights to help retail marketers identify relevant audiences and deliver personalized ads at each touchpoint.

AI allows you to understand shopper behavior across channels and optimize your campaigns in real time. Whether a customer is browsing a fashion blog, watching an online video, or streaming a podcast, AI helps ensure your ads are delivered at the most opportune moments, increasing the chances of conversion.

Lowering customer acquisition costs and boosting lifetime value

By engaging shoppers across multiple touchpoints, omnichannel advertising can help lower customer acquisition costs (CAC) while increasing customer lifetime value (CLV). When customers see your brand consistently across different platforms, they’re more likely to remember it and engage with it.

Omnichannel strategies not only help you convert first-time buyers but also create a foundation for long-term loyalty. When your brand shows up across channels, delivering relevant, personalized experiences, you’re building a relationship that goes beyond a single transaction.

Easy setup and no minimum spend with Quantcast

If the thought of managing campaigns across multiple channels sounds overwhelming, don’t worry—Quantcast makes it simple. With the Quantcast Advertising Platform, you can easily launch and optimize omnichannel campaigns across display, video, CTV, audio, and more. Our user-friendly interface ensures you can get up and running quickly, without any minimum spend requirements.

Quantcast’s AI-powered demand-side platform (DSP) automates much of the process, from targeting and optimization to real-time adjustments. Whether you’re a small DTC brand or a large retail company, our platform offers the flexibility and efficiency you need to manage your omnichannel strategy with ease.

Unlock the power of omnichannel advertising

To truly connect with today’s shoppers, retail marketers must embrace omnichannel advertising. By engaging customers across display, video, CTV, and audio, you can create a seamless, personalized experience that resonates with shoppers at every touchpoint. Ga.Ma, a global leader in hair and beard care technology, adopted a multi-channel strategy to expand into the US that resulted in a 53% brand lift and 1.4x higher site visit rate.

Quantcast’s Advertising Platform provides the tools you need to execute an effective omnichannel strategy, helping you find the right customers, lower CAC, and increase CLV—all while simplifying campaign management. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to future-proof your retail marketing efforts and grow your brand’s reach.

Meet the Quantcast team on 24-25 June at Olympia, London for DMWF Global!

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Threads continues to steadily separate from Instagram, and add more customization and control options, this time with an expansion of its “Hidden Words” settings, so that you can block unwanted discussion from your experience.

As you can see in these example screens, Threads has now added another element to its Hidden Words option, with an optional toggle to block offensive content, and/or set your own custom terms and emojis to filter out of your Threads experience.

The update is an expansion on the Hidden Words features that Threads first launched back in April.

As explained by Threads chief Adam Mosseri:

“[The update] includes newly added custom filters to block words, phrases, and emojis in batches, with optional time limits. Threads is about fostering an open exchange of perspectives, and to do so people need to be able to shape the experience into one where they feel comfortable expressing themselves. This is just one more idea in support of that goal.”

In terms of time limits, users can choose to block certain words, phrases, or emojis, and set an expiration date on that setting within 30 days. So if there’s a topic that’s really annoying you, or TV show spoilers you want to avoid, you can erase them from your view for a certain time. 

It’s a significant update, in more ways than one, because up till now, Threads has primarily relied on your IG settings for the same, using your Instagram profile as a proxy for your Threads experience. But with Threads evolving into its own platform, the Threads team is now adding more options that are separate from Instagram.

Which is a smart move. While it made sense for Meta to boost Threads take-up by integrating it with IG in its initial launch stage, the way that people now use Threads is, for most people at least, very different to what they come to Instagram for.

As such, Threads needs its own settings, and its own processes, separate from your Instagram interactions and preferences, in order to build it into its own experience.

The Threads team has already taken steps on this front, by removing Threads follow recommendations based on what you engage with on IG, while it’s also testing the option to create a Threads profile without using your Instagram login.

These are all important steps to separate the two, and enable Threads to grow into a new platform of its own. And with 350 million users, Threads should now have enough engagement insights, based on Threads activity in isolation, to have a clear understanding of engagement trends and interest graphs separate from IG.

Providing Threads-specific controls is another step in this direction, as Meta looks to build it into the next billion-user platform.

Is that even possible?

I mean, Twitter/X has never exceeded 600 million users, so it does seem like the interest in a real-time, text-based social feed like this is limited. But maybe, if Meta can get it right, it could well overtake the growth of the format’s originator at some stage.

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Look, I don’t think this is going to be a major update for, well, anyone, but it’s another IG option to consider either way.

Today, Instagram has announced that all users can now access background colors for their inbox Notes, while you can also add avatar emojis to your add-on notifications.

As you can see in this example, now, you can change up your Notes to make them stand out, by coloring in the background with whatever shade you choose, and adding an emoji for extra effect.

Instagram’s been testing this for a while so you may have had access already, while it’s also tried out colored backgrounds for different events and activations in the past, so it won’t appear entirely new.

But it’s another option to consider, and with Notes proving to be particularly popular with younger users, who Instagram really wants to reach, and more engagement now happens in DMs than in the main app, it makes sense for IG to bring more focus to Notes, however it can.

Though they haven’t been a hit in all applications.

Back in March, Instagram removed Notes from Reels and feed posts, because people didn’t like them, so their appeal is limited, and they don’t enhance all in-app experiences.

But maybe providing another option for Notes engagement could be popular, and could resonate with those younger users who are already using them.

Either way, another consideration for your IG engagement.

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1998 – the official launch of Google and the beginning of a new world where information would be forever at our fingertips. In the 23 years since, Google has experienced thousands of algorithm updates, with its SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) undergoing substantial changes, evolving into dynamic, AI-powered answer engines.

The evolution of Google’s SERPs has changed how businesses operate online marketing, shifting from traditional blue links that simply listed websites to dynamic, intent-driven SERP features, like featured snippets, AI summaries, videos, and images.

Today, Google says it prioritises high-quality content and user experience, providing the best answers for its users rather than relying on Black Hat SEO tricks like keyword stuffing and purchasing links to increase a site’s ranking.

Zero-click searches have become increasingly prevalent, allowing users to obtain information they need without clicking through to a website. When aligning content with user intent, businesses are able to enhance their chances of getting featured in such dynamic elements, maintaining visibility even if users do not visit their website.

By creating high-quality, authoritative content that aligns with Google’s EEAT guidelines, optimising AI overviews, and implementing schema markup to help search engines understand content better, businesses can adapt to the ever-changing SERP landscape, remaining visible and ensuring high click-through rates.

Understanding Google’s new SERP features

Google’s latest SERP features have been designed to improve user experience with quick answers and additional information provided right on the results pages. In turn, this helps attract more clicks and drive organic traffic to a website.

Several features are noteworthy:

• Rich Snippets
• Featured Snippets (position zero)
• People Also Ask (PAA)
• Knowledge Panels
• Local Packs
• Image & Video Carousels

Rich snippets, also known as rich results, provide extra information about a website page in standard search results. Typically, snippets are more visually appealing to users, and include elements like prices, images, and ratings. Common snippet examples are reviews, recipes, events, and products, with Google putting up additional details from schema markup located in a specific webpage’s HTML.

Featured snippets address a user’s search query directly, offering an explanation found on a webpage. This will also include a link to that source page. Featured snippets tend to appear at the top of the SERP, coming in different forms such as lists, short paragraphs, or tables.

People Also Ask (PAA) boxes show related questions to a user’s original query, providing a short answer and a link to the source of the information. When clicking on a question, the box will expand, displaying the answer as well as further related questions.

Google Knowledge Panels are information boxes typically appearing on the right side of a search results page. These displays key facts and data about an entity, like a company or place, taken from Google’s internal Knowledge Graph. When appearing in a knowledge panel, a business can achieve a boost to visibility, credibility, traffic, and brand authority.

Local Packs or Map Packs show local business listings when a user searches for nearby services (i.e., “restaurants near me”). Appearing at the top of search results, Local Packs include a map showing business locations, details like address, phone number, reviews, hours, and website, a link to other local results, and data pulled from Google Business Profiles and Google Maps.

Image & Video Carousels are shown when Google believes images or videos best satisfy search intent. The feature typically appears for how-to guides, reviews, and other visual topics.

Google aims to serve matching intent, not just keywords. User intent determines directly what SERP features are shown. Search engines analyse queries to match them with the most useful format to provide the best answer Google can muster.

Rich Snippets: What they are and how to earn them

Rich snippets show extra details in search results, including images, ratings, and prices, helping webpages build traffic. The information is generally collected by Google from structured data markup in a page’s HTML.

For instance, when searching for a new phone, Google will add a rich snippet with an image, price, review count, and delivery information. This makes a webpage appear more attractive and informative to potential visitors.

Schema markup plays an important role in rich snippets, classifying a page’s content and providing information beyond standard titles, URLs, and meta descriptions. When adding this structured data to a website’s HTML, search engines better understand the content of the pages.

For instance, schema markup can specify recipe details (cooking time, ingredients), product information (availability, reviews, prices), event details (location, date), and video information (upload date, duration). When content is marked with schema markup, businesses can increase the chances of search engines presenting their web pages with rich snippets.

Implementation best practices

If a site allows it, Google recommends the use of JSON-LD, a JavaScript notation separate from the body of a page’s HTML. This is the simplest solution to implement and maintain at scale, also proving to be less prone to user errors.

To validate structured data, and sometimes preview how features may appear in Google Search, Rich Results Test is another useful tool. The test is designed to help website owners determine whether their schema markup is eligible for rich results in Google Search, supporting various structured data formats, including JSON-LD, RDFa, and Microdata.

It is important that businesses follow the general structured data guidelines and other stipulations specific to the web page’s structured data type. If these guidelines are not followed, the data may become ineligible for rich result displays.

Local Packs: Optimising for local visibility

Google Local Packs are specialised featured results in Google Search that appear when users make location-based searches, like “coffee shops near Catford”. Google Business Profiles should be optimised to improve visibility in such local search results.

A local pack displays key information to help users decide where to visit, ultimately impacting a web page’s ranking. These can include a Google map showing the locations of relevant businesses in the area, with contact information, customer star ratings, the number of reviews, and, in some cases, pricing, opening hours, and a link to the business’s website.

Schema markup and structured data

As discussed above, schema markup, also known as structured data, is a type of code added to websites to aid search engines in understanding content more thoroughly. Search engines can provide additional details in search results, like prices and ratings (rich snippets), improving SEO performance

The three main formats to add schema markup to webpages are:

1. JSON-LD (recommended by Google)
2. Microdata
3. RDFa

Some common types of schema markup include:

• Products
• Articles
• Events
• Local businesses
• Person (profiles for individuals)
• Reviews
• How-to guides
• Videos

To audit and monitor structured data performance, it is recommended to use a Google Rich Results Test to check if a webpage is eligible for rich results. From here, it is possible to monitor structured data in the Google Search Console, which allows users to see which rich results types are active and track warnings and errors. Updating schema markup, like product details or business information, should be done regularly to ensure information reflects visible content on a webpage.

Creating content for Featured Snippets and PAAs

When creating content for featured snippets and PAAs, short, clear answers are key. It is recommended to provide concise, direct responses, typically 40 to 60 words, to common queries audiences ask.

Content should also be structured in formats that Google snippets favour, like tables for data or comparisons, step-by-step instructions, and lists. Researching keywords and rephrasing them as questions will target specific queries (i.e., “what is…”), followed by a precise, short answer.

SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs help identify snippet opportunities, including questions an audience is searching for, and keywords that trigger PAA or Featured Snippets boxes. Moreover, FAQ schema markup in question and answer format that Google can understand easily helps content appear directly in Rich Results.

Best practices and common mistakes to avoid

Always use accurate, relevant markup, ensuring structured data matches visible content on the webpage. This provides a clear, truthful representation to search engines. Content should be updated regularly to reflect current information and align with user search intent. It is also important to follow Google’s structured data guidelines to remain eligible for Rich Results.

Rich Results Test and Schema Markup Validator are helpful tools for testing structured data and finding any possible errors.

It is recommended that spammy or excessive markups are avoided, as overused or irrelevant structured data can lead to possible penalties or actions by Google. Structured data alone will not guarantee rich results nor improved rankings, so don’t rely on schema alone for visibility. Quality content and high-quality SEO basics an integral part of achieving good visibility.

Conclusion

Users can achieve significant benefits when optimising for Google’s latest SERP features, including enhanced visibility, stronger brand authority, and improved click-through rates. SERP optimisation should be treated as an ongoing strategy, one that merges technical elements like schema markup with user-focused, top-quality content. When maintained, webpage owners have a higher chance of long-term success, even in the evolving Google SERP landscape.

Tags: best practice, google, serps

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Another aspect of Meta’s recent shift to re-categorize all videos posted to the app (except live-streams) as Reels is that this will also change how Meta counts views for non-Reels clips.

Up till the announcement, Meta counted Facebook video views (non-Reels) at 3 seconds of view time, meaning that the video needed to be on-screen and playing for 3-seconds, at least, to register as a view. But now, Meta’s bringing this into line with Reels measurement, with video views to be counted basically as soon as the video begins playing.

Which, as Mondo Metrics chief Nick Cicero points out, means that, now, every major social platform counts a video view after a second.

Well except LinkedIn (2 seconds), while regular YouTube video views (everything but Shorts) are still counted at 30 seconds. 30 seconds feels like a more viable measure of attention and engagement, and it also worth noting that most platforms do also provide 2-second and 3-second view counts within their ad metrics, as well as completion rates to provide more context. But it is important for social media managers to understand what that view count data actually means, and represents, in real world terms.

To keep you up to speed, Nick Cicero has published this updated overview of how each platform measures a view for quick reference.

You can get more info on each at:

Or the team from Mondo Metrics can provide more in-depth insight.

Because as Cicero notes:

“Views are cheap. Attention is expensive.”

Worth taking note of what you’re actually measuring in this respect.  

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While many regions are pushing for new age limits on social media access, the key challenge remains that there’s currently no universal technology that enables platforms to verify user ages, nor a process in place that would definitively stop youngsters from accessing social apps.

Over the last year, several European nations, including France, Greece and Denmark, have put their support behind a proposal to restrict social media access to users aged under 15, while Spain has proposed a 16 year-old access restriction.

Australia and New Zealand are also moving to implement their own laws that would restrict social media access to those over the age of 16, while Norway is also developing its own regulations.

Though none of these pushes is technically a huge variation from what’s in place right now, with all of the major social platforms restricted to users aged 14 and up.

Sure, you could argue that those additional two years come at a significant developmental time, so the impacts would still be relevant. But the bigger challenge lies in actually enforcing these regulations, and how social platforms and local authorities can feasibly address such in a uniform way.

Right now, any such restrictions are enforced by penalizing each individual platform, with each company having to implement their own checks to stop young teens from accessing their apps.

Meta has proposed an alternative on this front, which would make the app stores, owned by Apple and Google, responsible for verifying user ages at the download level. That would take the onus off the platforms themselves, and ensure a more uniform enforcement process. Though, of course, Apple and Google are less keen on that plan, and they’re certainly not going to voluntarily make themselves accountable for any fines as a result of regional violations. As such, they’re lobbying against this push wherever they can.

But it does make sense, and it would reduce complexity, and establish a more definitive checking barrier at the point of entry, which should also have more impact, given that most young teens are reliant on their parents to buy them a phone.

But barring that possibility, there are several other age-checking systems in testing, which may help to stop youngsters from breaking the rules.

Meta, for example, is currently trialing third party age-checking, using video analysis from Yoti, in order to estimate each potential users’ age.

Meta has rolled this out in selected regions, across both Facebook and Instagram, but it remains, effectively, in test mode as it continues to assess the option.

That’s the same process that the Australian government is trying out, using video ID to stop teens from getting access, and its more recent trials have suggested that it could be a viable avenue on this front.

As reported by Bloomberg earlier this week:

“The trial’s project director, Tony Allen, said that there were ‘no significant technological barriers’ to stopping under-16s gaining social media accounts. ‘These solutions are technically feasible, can be integrated flexibly into existing services and can support the safety and rights of children online,’ he said. The trial tested a range of methods and technologies, including facial scans, inferring a user’s age based on their behavior, age verification, as well as parental controls.”

That could enable the Australian government to implement this as the baseline measurement, and ensure that all platforms are being held to the same standards in keeping youngsters off their apps.

Though there is also another potential solution in development, which may have more appeal to tech platforms, given its more futuristic vibe.

As reported by Semafor, Reddit is currently exploring the use of eye-scanning to detect user identity.

As per Semafor:

“Reddit is considering using World ID, the verification system based on iris-scanning Orbs whose parent company was co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. According to two people familiar with the matter, World ID could soon become a way for Reddit users to verify that they are unique individuals while remaining anonymous on the platform.”

The aim here, as Semafor notes, is to ensure that a real human is behind each account, with Reddit facing various new challenges related to AI bot profiles and bot interactions in the app.

Iris-scanning would provide a potential solution on this front, while recent research has also suggested that eye-scanning can accurately determine a person’s age as well.

That would mean that, at least in theory, there could soon be a new biomarker linked to age-checking, which categorizes each user based on this less intrusive ID element.

How that might work in practice is another question, as each individual user would seemingly need to access a World ID orb to scan their eyes in. There are online variations available, but this could prove to be a limitation in this respect.

The bottom line, however, is that we’re moving towards a future where age identification will be more enforceable, and will become a legal requirement, which will also keep people’s personally identifying information on servers around the world.

I mean, a heap of personally identifiable and intrusive information is already available in the server banks of the major social apps, but soon, there is likely to be a bigger push on biometric info, which will spark all new debates over data security, and the options we have, as users, to control how such information is relayed.

But if age limits are to be enacted, a level of confirmation will be required. And the expanded implications of that could be significant for the future of digital surveillance. 

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The saga continues…

As expected, U.S. President Donald Trump has once again signed an executive order that will give TikTok a further 90 days to find a U.S.-based partner, in order to comply with a law which states that all entities owned by TikTok parent ByteDance are effectively banned in the nation.

As per the White House press release:

“The enforcement delay specified in section 2(a) of Executive Order 14166 of January 20, 2025, is further extended until September 17, 2025.  During this period, the Department of Justice shall take no action to enforce the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, or impose any penalties against any entity for any noncompliance with the Act.”

So the law is still in place, but the government won’t enforce it, with the Attorney General to provide written assurances to Apple, Google and other providers that they won’t get fined for hosting TikTok.

TikTok has welcomed yet another extension:

“We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office.”

As the White House release notes, the extension will now give TikTok till September 17th to come up with a U.S. sale arrangement, or it’ll once again face a full ban in the U.S.

Or, in all probability, Trump will just extend it once more.

Thus far, Trump has seemed more than willing to keep on signing new executive orders, in order to keep the app running in the U.S., holding off on enforcement of the Senate-approved law, in contravention of the lawmaking process.

But as President, he is empowered to make that call, and legal experts say that it’s unclear how many times he can extend the deadline. And with Trump noting that he has “a warm spot” in his heart for the app, which he’s also claimed helped him win the 2024 U.S. election by maximizing his connection with young voters, it doesn’t seem like the app’s going to get cut off anytime soon, despite the bill.

Indeed, come September, it will be over 250 days since TikTok was officially banned in the U.S., and yet, it’ll still be operating in the region as normal. Recent U.S.-China trade arrangements may help to ease tensions on this front, and facilitate an eventual deal. But really, given what we’ve seen thus far, it doesn’t seem like TikTok’s going anywhere either way.

Which isn’t quite the assurance and security that creators and brands using the platform ideally need.

But for now, the great TikTok-U.S. saga continues.

The whole ordeal has actually been dragging on for years, starting back in 2019, when initial government bans of the app were implemented.

As a contextual refresher, here’s a full timeline of the saga:

• As noted, throughout 2019, amid rising concern about TikTok’s potential ties to the Chinese government, various U.S. officials announced bans and restrictions on the app on government-owned devices, marking the first indicators of government-level concerns about the security of the app. 
• In August 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump said that he would be moving to ban TikTok in the U.S. entirely, in order, he initially claimed, to punish China for the spread of the virus.
• After the U.S. government oversaw various bids for the app, TikTok looked like it was close to being sold to Oracle in September 2020, but following his inauguration in February 2021, incoming U.S. President Joe Biden abandoned the TikTok sell-off push, citing irregularities and inconsistencies in the process.
• The Biden Administration then initiated a full security review of the app, which led to new calls for TikTok to be banned due to undisclosed national security concerns.
• In November 2022, the then-head of the FBI told a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that the bureau has “national security concerns” about the U.S. operations of TikTok, noting specifically that “the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose.”
• In March 2023, a group of U.S. senators introduced a bill to address the security threat posed by TikTok. In the same month, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to plead the case that TikTok is complying with U.S. data security requirements.
• In October 2023, U.S. senators called on TikTok to explain its decision to place Chinese Bytedance staff into key roles at TikTok, seemingly contradicting its claims of independence.
• In November 2023, U.S. senators once again raised concerns about TikTok amid allegations that it was promoting pro-Palestinian content.
• In January 2024, media reports suggested that TikTok was still sharing data with China, despite the company’s denials.
• In February 2024, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew again appeared before the U.S. Senate, where he faced more questions about the data obligations of the company.
• In March 2024, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban. The bill passed 352-65 in a bipartisan vote.
• Later that month, national security officials held closed-door briefings with U.S. senators to highlight the threat posed by TikTok
• In April 2024, the U.S. Senate approved the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which “prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok),” among other measures. The final vote on the bill was 79 to 18 in favor.
• Rather than explore a sell-off, TikTok instead opted to challenge the bill in court, and in May 2024, TikTok launched its legal case against the law, suggesting that it unfairly targets TikTok and ByteDance, for no reason outside of the “hypothetical possibility” that the app poses an actual threat.
• In December 2024, a U.S. appeals court rejected TikTok’s bid to disqualify the U.S. government’s enforced sell-off bill,
• In January 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the appeals court’s decision on the TikTok bill.
• In his final days in office, then-President Joe Biden said that he would not look to enforce the TikTok ban on January 19th, 2025, when it went into effect, leaving it to incoming President Trump to action as he saw fit.
• TikTok went offline on January 19th, amid uncertainty about potential enforcement. The app was down in the U.S. for approximately 20 hours.
• Following his inauguration as President, Donald Trump issued an executive order that granted TikTok an additional 75 days to work out a U.S. sell-off deal.
• In April 2025, Trump granted TikTok a second 75-day extension via executive order.

Which brings us to today, with TikTok still clinging to its Trump life-raft in the U.S., and hoping that the whole thing will just go away somehow.

It’s also worth noting that it’s never been clarified what threat, exactly, TikTok poses as the basis for this law, as the full presentations shown to senators by cybersecurity officials have been withheld from the public. The three areas of concern are the links between TikTok and the Chinese government, TikTok’s data collection practices, and Chinese foreign influence operations within the app. Which of these is considered the bigger concern, however, and to what extent U.S. authorities have detected such, we don’t know, which is another element that’s added to the ongoing confusion.

And at the same time, TikTok’s still trying to sway U.S. senators in its favor, even sending a former WNBA player to engage with Texas legislators in Austin recently, and advocate on its behalf.

I mean, a 6’4” woman is certainly a unique messenger, but with the law already enacted, there’s not really anything local senators can do either way.

But clearly, TikTok remains confident that it’ll still be around, and with another extension of its negotiation period, it does seem like it will.

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Yeah, I’m still convinced that Meta’s ever going to go all-in on fediverse sharing, and its support of decentralized social media via a network of independent servers.

But it is pushing forward with its fediverse experiments in Threads, with the platform today getting a couple of new features for fediverse-connected users.

To recap, at launch, Meta made a commitment to ensuring that Threads would be interoperable with fediverse servers, meaning that, in theory, you would one day be able to follow users from other decentralized social apps, like Mastodon, within Threads. You’d be able to engage, interact, all via different servers, and over the past year, Threads has added various fediverse sharing options to facilitate external interconnection.

To be clear, Threads is not fully open to other platforms as yet, but you can share your updates to other fediverse servers, and have people follow you from other platforms.

And today Threads is expanding this, with fediverse-connected users now able to also see posts from federated users in the app.

As you can see in this example, you’ll now be able to view posts within Threads that were shared to other fediverse servers. Those posts will include their handles on other apps.

You’ll also be able to search for fediverse-connected users via Threads:

Though not all federated servers will be available.

For one, they have to be using the same protocol as Threads. Federated servers can only communicate with each other if, essentially, they speak the same language, and Threads is able to translate ActivityPub protocols, which is the same system that powers Mastodon, Bookwyrm, WriteFreely and others.

Mastodon is clearly the biggest of these, though with only around 1.4 million active users at present, there’s not a heap of expanded opportunity there.

The largest decentralized social app is Bluesky, but that’s built on AT Protocol, so, at this stage at least, it can’t communicate with Threads.

That may change in future, but right now, even this expanded decentralized linkage is fairly limited.

Is it that big of a deal either way? Do users really care about fediverse connection?

Well, it depends on who you ask.

Last week, TechCrunch’s Sara Perez wrote an overview of the expanded potential of Bluesky, and decentralized social media more broadly, in which she noted that the real benefit of decentralized social platforms is that provide more options, and personal control over your in-app experience:

“If you don’t like the tone of the topics trending on Bluesky, you can switch to other apps, change your default feeds, or even build your own social platform using the technology.”

This is the main benefit of decentralized social platforms, that you’ll no longer be beholden to the big corporates that control social media engagement, and definitely, there’s a case to be made on this front, considering how much control they enable billionaires to have over the broader information ecosystem.

But the biggest challenge for fediverse adoption is that the vast majority of regular users just don’t care.

And this is not unique to decentralized social experiments. Back in 2016, for example, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when Meta was being scrutinized over the way it accesses and handles user data, and all the headline reports were that people should quit Facebook, that they should update their privacy settings, that they should stop submitting their info to Zuck and Co. altogether.

The general feel, based on media coverage, was that there was a resulting Facebook backlash, but according to Meta itself, it saw no meaningful decline in usage, nor an uptick in people updating their privacy settings.

Because that’s not interesting, it’s annoying, people don’t like having to go into their settings and update their details, even when prompted, based on potential issues with their account.

This happens time and time again. A platform will launch a new dashboard to enable more control options, but no one will use it. Facebook will let you opt out of certain ads, but nobody does. TikTok will let you hold your data out of its ad targeting system, yet the vast majority of people still allow it.

Even though these users will still report having concerns about such, even though they’ll engage with reports about privacy issues, even though we see regular reports of mass data breaches. People don’t care, because convenience trumps complexity, for most social media users.

Which is why decentralized social won’t catch on, because the vast majority of people don’t want to have to select a server to connect to, or define rules for the algorithm, or figure out how to communicate across fediverse instances.

It’s all too much extra work, especially when you can create a profile on TikTok and let the algorithm show you stuff you’ll like, based on minimal input.

Social platform algorithms are now better than ever at highlighting content that’s relevant to each users’ interest, without them even having to like or engage with anything themselves, and while they continue to refine personalization to the laziest degree for users, fediverse connection is going the other way, and seeking more and more specific input.

Which, as people who are knowledgeable about such elements rightly point out, is a better way to go, but most people don’t fit into that category. And without critical mass, fediverse servers become more like elitist group chats, which appeal to fewer and fewer users as they become more refined.

Which, again, is why I don’t think Meta’s really taking this seriously, and is more hedging its bets with fediverse functionality. Sure, it looks good for Threads to link into other servers, leaning into the fediverse shift. But at this rate, it can hardly be called a “shift” at all, it’s more an alternative, a back-alley social gathering for nerdy conversations.

Which is likely good for those engaged in them, but less so for the general population.      

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Launching a new webpage is exciting! It’s a chance to share your ideas with the world and potentially reach a massive audience. But before you hit publish, there’s some crucial groundwork to lay. This checklist equips you with 15 SEO must-haves, the essentials to ensure your webpage gets noticed by search engines and potential visitors

How To Do SEO For A New Page?

The power of SEO is tremendous and it would be unwise of you not to leverage it. By incorporating the best practices in this SEO checklist, you increase your webpage’s likelihood of ranking high in search results. This translates to more organic traffic, more website visitors, and ultimately, more success for your online venture.

SEO might seem quite technical at first glance but it’s nothing you can’t conquer! This checklist will break down 15 SEO essentials into easy to understand and manageable steps. From keyword research to technical SEO considerations, you’ll find everything you need to optimize your webpage and get ready to welcome a whole new wave of visitors.

Necessity Assessment

• Confirm that the new page is needed.
• Evaluate if the content could be incorporated into existing pages without compromising user experience.

Keyword Research

• Identify and incorporate relevant target primary and secondary keywords into the page content.
• Ensure keywords align with user intent and search queries.
• Carefully choose keywords to avoid competition with existing pages on the site.

Title Tag

• Craft a compelling and descriptive title tag (50-60 characters).
• Include primary keywords for better search engine visibility.

Meta Description

• Write a concise and engaging meta description (160 characters).
• Highlight key information and encourage click-throughs.

URL Structure

• Create a clean and readable URL.
• Include relevant keywords and avoid unnecessary parameters.
• Keep URLs concise, ideally between 50-60 characters.
• Avoid uppercase letters and underscores in the URL; use hyphens to separate words for better readability.

URL Drafting

• Carefully draft the URL to avoid similarity with any existing URLs on the site.
• Ensure that the new URL is distinctive and reflects the page’s content.

Header Tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

• Use header tags to structure content logically.
• Ensure the H1 tag reflects the primary topic and includes relevant keywords.
• Keep H1’s concise & within 20-70 characters for optimal visibility.
• All header tags should include relevant long-tail keywords.

Content

• Include high quality on-page content that integrates targeted keywords and directly answers search queries.    

Technical SEO New Page Requirements

Image Optimization

• Compress and optimize images for faster page load times.
• Use descriptive file names and include alt text with relevant keywords.

Internal Linking

• Include internal links to relevant pages on your website.
• Ensure a logical flow and help users navigate easily.

Mobile-Friendly Design

• Ensure the page is responsive and provides a good user experience on mobile devices.

Page Speed

• Optimize page speed for a better user experience and improved search rankings.

Canonical Tags

• Implement canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues.
• Specify the preferred version of the page for search engines.
• When a product is featured on multiple category pages, ensure that the product page URL for each category is canonicalized to a single page. This helps prevent duplicate issues. Additionally, if you create a new category and list the product there as well, the main canonicalized URL should remain unchanged as before.

Sitemap and Indexing

• Ensure the new page is included in the website’s sitemap.
• Verify that the page is set to be indexable by search engines.

Schema markup

• Schema markup is essentially a code or label that helps search engines understand your webpage’s content.
• Implementing schema markup into your website’s HTML code is crucial for SEO as it aids search bots in identifying topics and keywords associated with your new page.

All Set & Good To Go For SEO

Congratulations! Your new webpage is now ready for launch after you’ve implemented all aspects of this detailed checklist! It is important to remember that SEO is an ongoing process, but with this foundation in place, you’re well on your way to attracting organic traffic and achieving your online goals.

If you’d like to learn more about anything in the digital realm, contact us today and we can audit your website to see which services you’d benefit the most from!

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YouTube’s rolling out an updated shopping button for Shorts, while it’s also giving more channel managers access to its Communities option, providing more ways to engage with your audience in the app.

First off, on shopping in Shorts. YouTube’s announced an updated display for product listings within Shorts clips, with product stickers to be displayed more prominently on screen.

As you can see in this example sequence, now, when you tag a product in a Short, you’ll be able to place a product-specific sticker wherever you choose on the playback screen.

As explained by YouTube:

“Up until now, tagged products appeared in a banner in the bottom left-hand corner of Shorts. Once clicked, the banner would then open a list of tagged products for viewers to shop. Now, the shopping button on Shorts is getting an upgrade. When you tag products in your Shorts, viewers will see a shopping product sticker. When viewers tap the sticker image, they’ll be redirected to the retailer’s website for that product.”

YouTube says that if multiple products are tagged, tapping the down arrow on the sticker (as you can see in the example above) will open a product list.

“Stickers are generated for the first product in the list of tagged products, and you can rearrange the list to determine which product a sticker will be generated for. Size and placement can only be changed using the YouTube main app, so if you’re uploading via desktop or Studio Mobile, and you’d like to change the size and placement, you’ll need to go to the YouTube main app.”

So, more options for your promotions, with a much more upfront presentation style in the display.

And it could be worth considering:

“In an experiment in the U.S. in May 2025, Shorts with shopping product stickers saw over 40% more clicks on products than Shorts with the shopping button.”

Some advertisers likely prefer the previous display, but the updated format will provide more options on this front.

YouTube’s also expanding access to its Communities feature once again, with all creators that have access to posts now getting Communities as well.

YouTube’s channel Communities provide a text-based discussion board element to channels, adding another, more social media-aligned way for creators and their fans to interact.

 YouTube began testing Communities last July, and expanded them to more channels in February this year.

And now, a heap more channels will get access.

YouTube says creators who are invited to enable their Communities will receive notifications via email, and a banner notification displayed on their channel pages on mobile.

YouTube’s also adding new sorting options for Community posts:

“By default, the “Top Posts” are shown, and you can toggle to see “Newest” posts. These sorting options mirror the experience available on the main app.”

“Top Posts” ranks comments based on their likeliness to interact, while the “Newest” view is a reverse chronological feed.

“In recent months, we’ve improved our ability to reduce the visibility of lower quality post content, and raise higher quality content in the top feed, and the team is hard at work on additional features to further improve the experience.”

These updates could make Communities a more engaging, lively space, by making it easier for creators to ensure they prioritize key engagements.

Finally, YouTube is also rolling out four new animated gifts that livestream viewers can send during a broadcast.

As you can see in these examples, the new gifts are “Victory Spin.” “Hooray,” “Seal Splash,” and “Rockstar,” providing additional options for viewers to both get attention and donate to streamers in the app.

Not sure how much people will like the new options, but YouTube clearly thinks that these align with viewer responses to livestreams and streamers in the app.

The new gifts are currently only available to creators and viewers in the U.S.

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