The Friday Five: Twitter Announces Notes, CAPTCHA to Be Bypassed, And, Has Google Search Lost Its Way?

Bonjour, hola, bienvenue Friday Fivers! Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five - the only marketing newsletter you need! As always, in today's edition, we're looking at five of the most important/funny/irreverent news stories of the week. And this week, we've really got it all so without further ado, let's get into it!

1. Is Google Search Lost?

Kicking off today's Friday Five we have an article from Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic. In his piece, he talks about the open secrets of Google Search and how the tool we all use every single day to search for everything from inane tidbits of information to stuff that can literally change your life, is not at all we thought it was.

He cites plenty of people in the article who say that the search engine results page has become muddied, and no longer matches with what the user wants when they type their search query in. Instead of getting a straight answer for something that they have searched for, they get flooded with ads, maps, and potential businesses looking to sell products, rather than just the thing that they wanted in the first place.

However, Warzel also cites those that say Google’s flagship product has gotten better because of its complexity. Supporters argue it's trying to work out what the searchers ‘trying to get at’ rather than what they just typed, which has seen results change to be less literal and more nuanced.?

The article is a long read but a fascinating one filled with different opinions, you can read the full piece via the link here.

2. Featured Snippets Get More SERP Real Estate

Are we heading further and further into a world where users no longer have to click on a website to get an answer to their search query?

In a tweet, Brodie Clarke, SEO wiz, recently highlighted some new tests that appear to show Google offering up to four different featured snippets for someone's search query, as opposed to the one it currently shows.

It all appears to be a part of Google’s plan to make the search experience as frictionless, and with fewer clicks, as possible.

Time will tell if this test becomes part and parcel of Google’s search engine results page, but it clearly shows that the power of content, in particular long-form content, is very much alive and kicking. Sites and webmasters need to continue to pay attention to the words on their websites.

3. Is CAPTCHA about to Be Condemned?

It's up there with forgetting your password, and your computer freezing as you’re writing something, as one of the most annoying and frustrating parts of using the internet. But soon, it appears that Apple’s new iOS 16 update will allow iPhone users to bypass those annoying CAPTCHA windows in some apps and websites.

Soon, tapping on pictures of traffic lights or finding all the squares that have a bus in will be a thing of the past as Apple rolled out what it's calling Advanced Verification which will allow users to bypass CAPTCHA in apps and on the web thanks to their iCloud accounts.?

iOS 16 is due to be released later this year so we don't have to wait too long to be able to take advantage of this handy new feature which will be available by going to the Settings app, heading to ‘Apple ID’, then ‘Password and Security’, and clicking ‘Automatic Verification’.?

I don't know about you but I'm already counting down the days.

4. Telegram Looking to Cash In

Telegram, the multifunctional messaging service that's similar to WhatsApp, recently announced that it has amassed over 700 million monthly active users. They also let users know they are rolling out additional paid features in a bit to try and monetize a portion of the 700 million user base.?

“After giving it some thought, we realized that the only way to let our most demanding fans get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those raised limits a paid option,” Telegram founder Pavel Durov said in a statement.?

Despite the aforementioned Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger still dominating the IM space, 700 million is not a number to be sniffed at. It’ll be interesting to see if this plan to monetize certain features and elements will have an effect on their usage, given that their main competitors - the two mentioned earlier - are completely free.?

5. Twitter Is Taking Notes

It's the former home of a former president and the way that billions of people get their news, and now, Twitter is hoping to also be a place where people come to read more long-form, article-based content. In a move as significant as doubling the character count limit, Twitter has announced it is launching Twitter Notes.?

For many years, people have used Twitter's thread feature to publish long-form content which, while great for engagement can be a little clunky, especially for longer threads.

Twitter notes appear to be a solution for that issue.

We imagine that Twitter notes will look very similar to the LinkedIn pulse feature, the platform that the Friday Five that you're reading right now is written on.

Read more about it in Tech Crunch's piece.

Thanks for reading today's Friday Five - we hope you enjoyed it. Have a great weekend and we'll see you back here next week!