Digital Roundup: 007
This month we explore relationships between rivals: Apple vs. Android, Google vs. TikTok, and Airbnb vs. Big cities. Plus, to round out this roundup, our team tests out an AI tool that promises to make your life easier.?
iPhone users, have you ever messaged your mates who have Androids and wondered why it feels so dated? The pixelated images, lack of read receipts, and the dreaded green bubble are Apple’s attempts to discourage people from buying Android phones.?
But Google wants that to change. In a cheeky ad that revisits their 2022 “Get the Message” campaign, the search engine giant puts pressure on Apple to adopt RCS - a modern communication protocol for text messages between phones. By adopting RCS, Apple could solve many of the issues users face when messaging across platforms - finally making texting your Android friends feel more modern. The question is, do they want to?
Ever bought something because of a TikTok video (#TikTokMadeMeDoIt)? In a recent study, it was shown that visual platforms like TikTok or Instagram are becoming the default discovery tool, with almost 40% of young people now using TikTok to search for new shops and businesses, rather than hopping over to Google. ?
This hasn’t gone unnoticed by our search engine friends. In a surprise partnership, TikTok and Google joined forces to integrate Google Search into the TikTok app (what do they say about keeping your enemies close?). But while this partnership makes perfect sense for Google, it raises a few legal question marks too, with questions around whether Google is using this partnership to secure market dominance, something they’re already in hot water for with the Department of Justice.?
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And as the days get darker and colder, we might turn to the only natural cure: looking for next year’s holiday. If so, there’s a likelihood you’ll scroll through Airbnb at some point.?
However, the holiday rental giant has come under scrutiny in recent years, with cities around the world (San Francisco, Tokyo, Paris, Barcelona, and, most recently, New York) announcing restrictions on short-term rentals, due to the pressures that Airbnb and its visitors bring to residents.?
To answer this, Airbnb’s recent campaigns signal a change in their focus, highlighting properties in rural and ‘cottage communities’, where they have traditionally been more welcomed by locals. While Airbnb might be losing its dominance in cities across the world, it remains a popular choice for those remote getaways, and for now, Airbnb seems to be OK with that.?
By now, we’ll likely all have seen a LinkedIn post that starts with a menacing ‘IS AI GOING TO STEAL YOUR JOB!!?’ and concludes with the sentiment that it won’t, so long as you learn how to use it, without actually giving you any direction on what that looks like. Enter Waldo.?
Waldo is an AI tool designed to accelerate strategic research processes with two key offerings: AI research and Data search.?
We took it for a spin ourselves, and while the insights provided are useful, they lack the context and experience that comes from working with a business. Having said that, immediate access to information is hugely valuable, and combined with that business context, it could be a hugely impactful tool.?