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The Old Ways Still Work
Remember “Let Me Google That For You”?
It was a website people would passive-aggressively send to someone who asked a simple question. The site would go through the motions of fake-typing the person’s question into Google and then display the results.
Well, ChatGPT kind of does that, too.
Search Engine Journal reports on an experiment conducted by SEO specialist Aleyda Solis demonstrating that ChatGPT seems to rely on Google’s search engine results page (SERP) to find websites that haven’t been indexed on Bing. (ChatGPT was already using for most search queries.)
In multiple tests, Solis found that ChatGPT could not accurately summarize the content of new pages until Google had indexed them, at which point it would return the same snippet (meaning, the little summary under the link) as Google.
Embarrassing? Maybe. But Search Engine Journal suggests this might be good news for some marketers. If ChatGPT is just googling stuff, then traditional SEO methods are still relevant, even if new forms like GEO and AEO have become trendier to talk about.
(Anybody who still relies on SEO traffic, though, is likely still outta luck.)
In The Can’
Last year, Canada’s government ordered TikTok to shut down its Canadian business operations, which may actually be a bigger deal than the will-they-won’t-they drama in the US.
One of TikTok’s strongest defenses of itself is less about its official arguments and more about the widespread belief that the app simply can’t be banned. It’s too culturally important and a sudden ban would create a highly charged national controversy.
But what would a ban actually look like?
Well, don’t look up, America, because, as The Information reports, the TikTok shutdown in Canada is getting real.
TikTok is shuttering offices in Toronto and Vancouver, trying to relocate those employees and also pulling out of Canadian cultural sponsorships, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Juno Awards (Canada’s version of the Grammys).
The risk for TikTok is that its opponents in America start to make the case that a playbook now exists for a national TikTok ban. And also that there are steps a government can take to dismantle TikTok’s business operations without banning the app outright, a move that would be unpopular with millions of voters.
Notably, even in Canada, the government has not had the nerve to actually pull the plug on 14 million preexisting TikTok users in the market.
Watch Out, Watchdogs
Elon Musk’s legal vendetta against media ratings orgs could soon claim another scalp.
Democrat-funded watchdog Media Matters is considering shutting down amid pressure from Musk’s lawsuits, as well as related Republican-led investigations, The New York Times reports. It could join the WFA’s GARM initiative as a casualty of Musk’s crusade against the ad industry.
Media Matters drew Musk’s ire when it published a report in November 2023 about ads appearing next to antisemitic posts on X. That report contributed to X losing $75 million in ad revenue through 2023.
Musk sued Media Matters less than a month following the report’s publication. And shortly after that, the Republican attorneys general of Texas and Missouri launched investigations into the report. Then, in May, the Republican-led FTC began investigating an alleged conspiracy between ad agencies and groups like Media Matters to defund conservative media outlets.
Although Media Matters has won legal decisions, new lawsuits, appeals and investigations have kept the pressure on. As a result, Media Matters has racked up a $4 million tab from Elias Law Group.
Media Matters has considered settling with Musk. But Musk’s camp reportedly is only willing to settle if Media Matters retracts its report, hands over all its cash and shuts down for good.
But Wait! There’s More!
The FCC has officially approved the merger of Paramount and Skydance. [Variety]
Publicis is in the market for an AI company acquisition. [Business Insider]
The DNC has started buying Epstein-related ads in vulnerable Republican districts. [Axios]
Meta will stop selling and displaying political ads in the EU this October. [TechCrunch]
AI companies are outsourcing their website scraping to third parties in order to get around publisher attempts to block known scrapers. [Press Gazette]
Google’s Sundar Pichai is officially a billionaire now. [Fortune]
At least some ad agencies are still hiring! [Adweek]
ArcSpan raised $5.2 million to invest in its publisher first-party data tool. [AdMonsters]
Apple expanded its age-rating system, offering more specific guidelines for determining age-appropriate apps. [TechCrunch]
Women’s safety dating app, Tea, isn’t so safe after all. A group of 4chan users claim to have breached the database and doxxed users. [404 Media]
You’re Hired!
Dick Clark Productions hires Mike Chuthakieo as its first ever chief commercial officer. [Variety]