Dec 13 2024
China banned exports of a few rare minerals to the US. Things could get messier.

This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here.

I’ve thought more about gallium and germanium over the last week than I ever have before (and probably more than anyone ever should).

As you may already know, China banned the export of those materials to the US last week and placed restrictions on others. The move is just the latest drama in escalating trade tensions between the two countries.

While the new export bans could have significant economic consequences, this might be only the beginning. China is a powerhouse, and not just in those niche materials—it’s also a juggernaut in clean energy, and particularly in battery supply chains. So what comes next could have significant consequences for EVs and climate action more broadly.

A super-quick catch-up on the news here: The Biden administration recently restricted exports of chips and other technology that could help China develop advanced semiconductors. Also, president-elect Donald Trump has floated all sorts of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Apparently in response to some or all of this, China banned the export of gallium, germanium, antimony, and superhard materials used in manufacturing, and said it may further restrict graphite sales. The materials are all used for both military and civilian technologies, and significantly, gallium and germanium are used in semiconductors.

It’s a ramp-up from last July, when China placed restrictions on gallium and germanium exports after enduring years of restrictions by the US and its Western allies on cutting-edge technology. (For more on the details of China’s most recent move, including potential economic impacts, check out the full coverage from my colleague James Temple.)

What struck me about this news is that this could be only the beginning, because China is central to many of the supply chains snaking around the globe.

This is no accident—take gallium as an example. The metal is a by-product of aluminum production from bauxite ore. China, as the world’s largest aluminum producer, certainly has a leg up to be a major player in the niche material. But other countries could produce gallium, and I’m sure more will. China has a head start because it invested in gallium separation and refining technologies.

A similar situation exists in the battery world. China is a dominant player all over the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries—not because it happens to have the right metals on its shores (it doesn’t), but because it’s invested in extraction and processing technologies.

Take lithium, a crucial component in those batteries. China has around 8% of the world’s lithium reserves but processes about 58% percent of the world’s lithium supply. The situation is similar for other key battery metals. Nickel that’s mined in Indonesia goes to China for processing, and the same goes for cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Over the past two decades, China has thrown money, resources, and policy behind electric vehicles. Now China leads the world in EV registrations, many of the largest EV makers are Chinese companies, and the country is home to a huge chunk of the supply chain for the vehicles and their batteries.

As the world begins a shift toward technologies like EVs, it’s becoming clear just how dominant China’s position is in many of the materials crucial to building that tech.

Lithium prices have dropped by 80% over the past year, and while part of the reason is a slowdown in EV demand, another part is that China is oversupplying lithium, according to US officials. By flooding the market and causing prices to drop, China could make it tougher for other lithium processors to justify sticking around in the business.

The new graphite controls from China could wind up affecting battery markets, too. Graphite is crucial for lithium-ion batteries, which use the material in their anodes. It’s still not clear whether the new bans will affect battery materials or just higher-purity material that’s used in military applications, according to reporting from Carbon Brief.

To this point, China hasn’t specifically banned exports of key battery materials, and it’s not clear exactly how far the country would go. Global trade politics are delicate and complicated, and any move that China makes in battery supply chains could wind up coming back to hurt the country’s economy. 

But we could be entering into a new era of material politics. Further restrictions on graphite, or moves that affect lithium, nickel, or copper, could have major ripple effects around the world for climate technology, because batteries are key not only for electric vehicles, but increasingly for our power grids. 

While it’s clear that tensions are escalating, it’s still unclear what’s going to happen next. The vibes, at best, are uncertain, and this sort of uncertainty is exactly why so many folks in technology are so focused on how to diversify global supply chains. Otherwise, we may find out just how tangled those supply chains really are, and what happens when you yank on threads that run through the center of them. 

Now read the rest of The Spark

Related reading

Check out James Temple’s breakdown of what China’s ban on some rare minerals could mean for the US.

Last July, China placed restrictions on some of these materials—read this story from Zeyi Yang, who explains what the moves and future ones might mean for semiconductor technology.

As technology shifts, so too do the materials we need to build it. The result: a never-ending effort to build out mining, processing, and recycling infrastructure, as I covered in a feature story earlier this year.

STEPHANIE ARNETT/MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW | GETTY, ENVATO

Another thing 

Each year we release a list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, and it’s nearly time for the 2025 edition. But before we announce the picks, here are a few things that didn’t make the cut. 

A couple of interesting ones on the cutting-room floor here, including eVTOLs, electric aircraft that can take off and land like helicopters. For more on why the runway is looking pretty long for electric planes (especially ones with funky ways to move through the skies), check out this story from last year. 

Keeping up with climate  

Denmark received no bids in its latest offshore wind auction. It’s a disappointing result for the birthplace of offshore wind power. (Reuters)

Surging methane emissions could be the sign of a concerning shift for the climate. A feedback loop of emissions from the Arctic and a slowdown in how the powerful greenhouse gas breaks down could spell trouble. (Inside Climate News)

Battery prices are dropping faster than expected. Costs for  lithium-ion packs just saw their steepest drop since 2017. (Electrek)

This fusion startup is rethinking how to configure its reactors by floating powerful magnets in the middle of the chamber. This sounds even more like science fiction than most other approaches to fusion. (IEEE Spectrum)

The US plans to put monarch butterflies on a list of threatened species. Temperature shifts brought on by climate change could wreak havoc with the insects’ migration. (Associated Press)

Sources close to Elon Musk say he’s undergone quite a shift on climate change, morphing from “environmental crusader to critic of dire climate predictions.” (Washington Post)

Google has a $20 billion plan to build data centers and clean power together. “Bring your own power” is an interesting idea, but not a tested prospect just yet. (Canary Media)

The Franklin Fire in Los Angeles County sparked Monday evening and quickly grew into a major blaze. At the heart of the fire’s rapid spread: dry weather and Santa Ana winds. (Scientific American)

Places in the US that are most at risk for climate disasters are also most at risk for insurance hikes. Check out these great data visualizations on insurance and climate change. (The Guardian)

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Dec 13 2024
The Download: Google’s Project Astra, and China’s export bans

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Google’s new Project Astra could be generative AI’s killer app

Google DeepMind has announced an impressive grab bag of new products and prototypes that may just let it seize back its lead in the race to turn generative artificial intelligence into a mass-market concern.

Top billing goes to Gemini 2.0—the latest iteration of Google DeepMind’s family of multimodal large language models, now redesigned around the ability to control agents—and a new version of Project Astra, the experimental everything app that the company teased at Google I/O in May.

The margins between top-end models like Gemini 2.0 and those from rival labs like OpenAI and Anthropic are now slim. These days, advances in large language models are less about how good they are and more about what you can do with them. And that’s where agents come in. 

MIT Technology Review got to try out Astra in a closed-door live demo last week. It gave us a hint at what’s to come. Find out more in the full story.

—Will Douglas Heaven

China banned exports of a few rare minerals to the US. Things could get messier.

—Casey Crownhart

I’ve thought more about gallium and germanium over the last week than I ever have before (and probably more than anyone ever should).

China banned the export of those materials to the US last week and placed restrictions on others. The move is just the latest drama in escalating trade tensions between the two countries.

While the new export bans could have significant economic consequences, this might be only the beginning. China is a powerhouse, and not just in those niche materials—it’s also a juggernaut in clean energy, and particularly in battery supply chains. So what comes next could have significant consequences for EVs and climate action more broadly. Read the full story.

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate and energy newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 It’s looking pretty likely 2024 will be the hottest year on record
But average temperatures are just one way of assessing our warming world. (New Scientist $)
+ The first few months of 2025 are likely to be hotter than average, too. (Reuters)
+ The US is about to make a sharp turn on climate policy. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Meta has donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund
In an effort to strengthen their previously fractious relationship. (WSJ $)
+ Mark Zuckerberg isn’t the only tech figure seeking the President-elect’s ear. (Insider $)

3 How China secretly repatriates Uyghurs
Even the United Nations is seemingly powerless to stop it. (WP $)
+ Uyghurs outside China are traumatized. Now they’re starting to talk about it. (MIT Technology Review)

4 How Big Tech decides when to scrub a user’s digital footprint
Murder suspect Luigi Mangione’s Instagram has been taken down—but his Goodreads hasn’t. (NYT $)
+ Why it’s dangerous to treat public online accounts as the full story. (NY Mag $)

5 Russia-backed hackers targeted Ukraine’s military using criminal tools
Which makes it even harder to work out who did it. (TechCrunch)

6 What Cruise’s exit means for the rest of the robotaxi industry
Automakers are becoming frustrated waiting for the technology to mature. (The Verge)
+ Cruise will focus on developing fully autonomous personal vehicles instead. (NYT $)

7 Researching risky pathogens is extremely high stakes
The potential for abuse has some researchers worried we shouldn’t undertake it at all. (Undark Magazine)
+ Meet the scientist at the center of the covid lab leak controversy. (MIT Technology Review)

8 Altermagnetism could be computing’s next big thing
It would lead to faster, more reliable electronic devices. (FT $)

9 Why some people need so little sleep
Gene mutations appear to hold at least some of the answers. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Babies spend most of their time asleep. New technologies are beginning to reveal why. (MIT Technology Review)

10 Inside the creeping normalization of AI movies
The world’s largest TV manufacturer wants to make films for people too lazy to change the channel. (404 Media)
+ Unsurprisingly, it’ll push targeted ads, too. (Ars Technica)
+ How AI-generated video is changing film. (MIT Technology Review)

Quote of the day

“They’ve made him a martyr for all the troubles people have had with their own insurance companies.”

—Felipe Rodriguez, an adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, explains why murder suspect Luigi Mangione is being lionized online to Reuters.

The big story

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

November 2024

Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they’ll be a game changer for fields as diverse as finance, drug discovery, and logistics.

But while the field struggles with the realities of tricky quantum hardware, another challenger is making headway in some of these most promising use cases. AI is now being applied to fundamental physics, chemistry, and materials science in a way that suggests quantum computing’s purported home turf might not be so safe after all. Read the full story.

—Edd Gent

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ Working life getting you down? These pictures of bygone office malaise will make you feel a whole lot better (or worse—thanks Will!)
+ Gen Z are getting really into documenting their lives via digital cameras, apparently. 📸
+ If you believe that Alan MacMasters invented the first electric bread toaster, I’m sorry to inform you that you’ve fallen for an elaborate online hoax.
+ The case for a better Turing test for AI-generated art.

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Dec 13 2024
Why materials science is key to unlocking the next frontier of AI development

The Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, was released in 1971. With 2,300 transistors packed into 12mm2, it heralded a revolution in computing. A little over 50 years later, Apple’s M2 Ultra contains 134 billion transistors.

The scale of progress is difficult to comprehend, but the evolution of semiconductors, driven for decades by Moore’s Law, has paved a path from the emergence of personal computing and the internet to today’s AI revolution.

But this pace of innovation is not guaranteed, and the next frontier of technological advances—from the future of AI to new computing paradigms—will only happen if we think differently.

Atomic challenges

The modern microchip stretches both the limits of physics and credulity. Such is the atomic precision, that a few atoms can decide the function of an entire chip. This marvel of engineering is the result of over 50 years of exponential scaling creating faster, smaller transistors.

But we are reaching the physical limits of how small we can go, costs are increasing exponentially with complexity, and efficient power consumption is becoming increasingly difficult. In parallel, AI is demanding ever-more computing power. Data from Epoch AI indicates the amount of computing needed to develop AI is quickly outstripping Moore’s Law, doubling every six months in the “deep learning era” since 2010.

These interlinked trends present challenges not just for the industry, but society as a whole. Without new semiconductor innovation, today’s AI models and research will be starved of computational resources and struggle to scale and evolve. Key sectors like AI, autonomous vehicles, and advanced robotics will hit bottlenecks, and energy use from high-performance computing and AI will continue to soar.

Materials intelligence

At this inflection point, a complex, global ecosystem—from foundries and designers to highly specialized equipment manufacturers and materials solutions providers like Merck—is working together more closely than ever before to find the answers. All have a role to play, and the role of materials extends far, far beyond the silicon that makes up the wafer.

Instead, materials intelligence is present in almost every stage of the chip production process—whether in chemical reactions to carve circuits at molecular scale (etching) or adding incredibly thin layers to a wafer (deposition) with atomic precision: a human hair is 25,000 times thicker than layers in leading edge nodes.

Yes, materials provide a chip’s physical foundation and the substance of more powerful and compact components. But they are also integral to the advanced fabrication methods and novel chip designs that underpin the industry’s rapid progress in recent decades.

For this reason, materials science is taking on a heightened importance as we grapple with the limits of miniaturization. Advanced materials are needed more than ever for the industry to unlock the new designs and technologies capable of increasing chip efficiency, speed, and power. We are seeing novel chip architectures that embrace the third dimension and stack layers to optimize surface area usage while lowering energy consumption. The industry is harnessing advanced packaging techniques, where separate “chiplets” are fused with varying functions into a more efficient, powerful single chip. This is called heterogeneous integration.

Materials are also allowing the industry to look beyond traditional compositions. Photonic chips, for example, harness light rather than electricity to transmit data. In all cases, our partners rely on us to discover materials never previously used in chips and guide their use at the atomic level. This, in turn, is fostering the necessary conditions for AI to flourish in the immediate future.

New frontiers

The next big leap will involve thinking differently. The future of technological progress will be defined by our ability to look beyond traditional computing.

Answers to mounting concerns over energy efficiency, costs, and scalability will be found in ambitious new approaches inspired by biological processes or grounded in the principles of quantum mechanics.

While still in its infancy, quantum computing promises processing power and efficiencies well beyond the capabilities of classical computers. Even if practical, scalable quantum systems remain a long way off, their development is dependent on the discovery and application of state-of-the-art materials.

Similarly, emerging paradigms like neuromorphic computing, modelled on the human brain with architectures mimicking our own neural networks, could provide the firepower and energy-efficiency to unlock the next phase of AI development. Composed of a deeply complex web of artificial synapses and neurons, these chips would avoid traditional scalability roadblocks and the limitations of today’s Von Neumann computers that separate memory and processing.

Our biology consists of super complex, intertwined systems that have evolved by natural selection, but it can be inefficient; the human brain is capable of extraordinary feats of computational power, but it also requires sleep and careful upkeep. The most exciting step will be using advanced compute—AI and quantum—to finally understand and design systems inspired by biology. This combination will drive the power and ubiquity of next-generation computing and associated advances to human well-being.

Until then, the insatiable demand for more computing power to drive AI’s development poses difficult questions for an industry grappling with the fading of Moore’s Law and the constraints of physics. The race is on to produce more powerful, more efficient, and faster chips to progress AI’s transformative potential in every area of our lives.

Materials are playing a hidden, but increasingly crucial role in keeping pace, producing next-generation semiconductors and enabling the new computing paradigms that will deliver tomorrow’s technology.

But materials science’s most important role is yet to come. Its true potential will be to take us—and AI—beyond silicon into new frontiers and the realms of science fiction by harnessing the building blocks of biology.

This content was produced by EMD Electronics. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff.

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Dec 13 2024
Charts: U.S. TikTok Shop BFCM Sales 2024

Adobe estimates U.S. shoppers spent $41.1 billion online in the five days from Thanksgiving 2024 through Cyber Monday. Shopify says global merchants on its platform received $11.5 billion in revenue from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

The $137.14 million in sales on TikTok Shop for 2024 Black Friday ($85.9 million) and Cyber Monday ($51.24 million) may seem small, but the platform is little more than a year old, with growth rates far exceeding most retailers and marketplaces.

Charm.io is a U.S.-based data provider helping retailers, sales teams, and investors with in-depth industry analytics, including the TikTok Shop performance metrics in this recap.

According to Charm, from Black Friday 2024 through Cyber Monday, Tarte Cosmetics (makeup) emerged as the top-performing brand on U.S. TikTok Shop, generating an impressive $15.33 million in revenue. Goli Nutrition (supplements) followed with $9.17 million, and Halara (female apparel) secured the third spot with $7.28 million.

–

The top-performing products highlighted diverse consumer interests. The Flybird Vibration Plate Exercise Machine led with $1.17 million in revenue from 15,940 sold units, followed by the Rhino USA Retractable Ratchet Straps ($981,190, 21,0000 units) and the ecozy Nugget Ice Maker ($930,650, 8,360 units).

–

U.S. TikTok Shop’s top categories from Black Friday through Cyber Monday underscored broad consumer appeal. “Beauty & Personal Care” led with $51.11 million in revenue, followed by “Womenswear” with $26.47 million, and “Sports & Outdoors” at $19.21 million.

–

Per Charm.io, livestreams were a powerful sales driver, with the 14-hour “Black Friday Knockout!” from Canvas Beauty Brand (hair and skin products) generating $2.10 million in revenue from 2.25 million viewers. The “Cyber Monday Mega Live” 10-hour event from Simply Mandys (cosmetics)  stood out with $667,430 in sales and 1.49 million viewers.

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Dec 13 2024
New Ecommerce Tools: December 12, 2024

This week’s rundown of new products and services for merchants includes generative AI app builders, virtual commerce, product image tools, customer experience platforms, blockchain payment solutions, and drone deliveries.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Amazon introduces Nova foundational models for genAI apps. Amazon has announced Nova, a new series of foundation models, available in Amazon Bedrock, a generative AI application builder. The Nova models lower costs and latency for almost any generative AI task, per Amazon, including analyzing complex documents and videos, understanding charts and diagrams, producing videos, and building sophisticated AI agents.

Web page for Amazon Nova Foundation Models

Amazon Nova Foundation Models

Seguno introduces Shopify Connect for Canva. Seguno, a provider of built-for-Shopify apps, has released Shopify Connect for Canva, an app to streamline content creation and allow users to move seamlessly between Canva and Shopify. Per Suguno, the app enhances product photos and brings consistent designs across storefronts and other marketing channels. The integration also streamlines file management, allowing media to flow in both directions.

Alibaba International launches Pic Copilot, an AI-powered ecommerce design tool. Alibaba International has announced the U.S. launch of Pic Copilot, an AI-driven design tool to help ecommerce businesses save on photography and design costs. Pic Copilot provides 12 AI design features for swapping image backgrounds, editing images and videos, generating ads, and more. The tool’s virtual try-on facilitates multiple skin tones and body types, featuring more than 160 models. Pic Copilot also allows users to upload personal images for product try-ons.

Adobe and Amazon Web Services partner to bring Adobe Experience Platform to brands. Adobe has announced an expanded partnership with Amazon Web Services to make Adobe Experience Platform available on AWS. The collaboration enables brands to strengthen customer relationships through highly personalized experiences, per Adobe. Applications powered by AEP — e.g., Real-Time CDP, Journey Optimizer, Customer Journey Analytics — will also be available on AWS. According to Adobe, brands can create and engage with high-value audiences, orchestrate personalized customer journeys, and analyze and optimize campaigns.

Web page of Adobe Experience Platform

Adobe Experience Platform

Roblox begins closed beta of Shopify integration. Roblox, the gaming platform, has allowed select developers to gain access to Shopify integration tools, including the creators of the Roblox experiences “Catalog Avatar Creator,” “Tower Heroes,” and “Creatures of Sonaria,” with more experiences expected to launch soon. The Shopify storefronts participating in the closed beta primarily sell merchandise tied to the in-game experiences rather than movie tickets or goods from external brands.

Amazon successfully tests delivery drones in Italy. Amazon has completed a test of delivery drones in Italy, the first country in Europe to receive the service. The test occurred in San Salvo, a town on the central Adriatic coast, with the new MK-30 drone, an automated Amazon system prompting drones to move away from obstacles and avoid other aircraft.

Nuvei launches blockchain payments in Latin America. Nuvei, a Canada-based fintech company, has launched a blockchain-based payment service for merchants across Latin America. Through Nuvei’s partnerships with Rain, a vertically integrated issuing partner for global platforms, BitGo, a digital asset custodian and wallet solutions provider, and Visa, Nuvei is enabling businesses to utilize stablecoin, including USD Coin, for faster global settlement and reduced reliance on traditional payments rails. The new service enables payments from a digital wallet anywhere Visa is accepted.

Screenshot of Nuvei's web page for the blockchain payment service

Nuvei blockchain payment service.

Clearco and Boundless launch integration to streamline funding for ecommerce brands. Clearco, a working capital provider for ecommerce brands, and Boundless, a capital marketplace, have announced an integration that builds on their partnership for working capital access. Clearco offers companies direct access to Boundless’s marketplace, while Boundless connects ecommerce brands to Clearco to secure funding in as little as 24 hours.

Asendia USA launches multi-service direct entry for ecommerce shipping to Mexico. Asendia USA has announced the launch of direct entry shipping to Mexico for ecommerce sellers. The offering provides Asendia logistics — from U.S. origin hubs through customs clearance and final Mexico delivery. The new service includes both delivered duty paid and unpaid options, multiple entry points to Mexico, simplified customs clearance, improved transit times for both expedited and standard deliveries, and enhanced tracking.

ShipStation provides U.K. SMBs with discounted daily collections from DPD. ShipStation, a shipping software provider, is serving small businesses in the U.K. with the launch of discounted daily parcel collections through DPD, the Geopost-owned parcel delivery company. This offering makes daily pickups for ready-to-ship packages more accessible and cost-effective for small businesses using ShipStation. U.K. consumers also have access to one-hour delivery windows with DPD Predict, real-time tracking through the DPD App, 10,000 drop-off shops, and next-day delivery seven days a week.

Maropost unveils AI-powered email marketing for commerce brands. Maropost, a connected commerce platform for mid-market merchants, has announced two AI-driven features for its Marketing Cloud product. The new eRFM harnesses AI to process and analyze four key dimensions of customer behavior: recency of interactions, frequency of interactions, monetary value, and enhanced metrics on other behavioral data points. Marketing Cloud’s new AI-driven product recommendation engine automatically populates email campaigns with personalized offers based on real-time purchase data and customer behavior.

Marapost home page

Marapost

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Dec 12 2024
Google Rolls Out December 2024 Core Update via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google announced it’s rolling out the December core algorithm update, which the company expects to complete over the next two weeks.

The news comes just a week after Google finished rolling out the November core update.

Google’s Announcement

In a post on X, Google stated:

“The Dec. 2024 core update is rolling out, and we expect it will complete in two weeks.

If you’re wondering why there’s a core update this month after one last month, we have different core systems we’re always improving. This past blog post explains more,”

Google’s post included a link to a blog post from November 2023 titled “A Q&A on Google Search updates.”

The blog post provides context around the company’s cadence of algorithm updates.

Multiple Ranking Systems

According to the announcement, Google uses “multiple ranking systems that do different things” and is “always looking at ways to improve these systems to show better results.”

The company said it generally shares information about “notable” updates that it thinks might produce noticeable changes in search results.

Regarding the proximity of the November and December updates, Google explained that while it tries to separate notable updates, “it’s not always possible” given the large number of updates the company implements overall. The post stated:

“If we have updates that can improve Search, that have been developed over the course of several months, we release them when they’re ready.”

Advice For Websites

As with previous core updates, the December update’s specific changes are unknown. However, Google has consistently advised that the best way for creators to succeed through these updates is to remain focused on creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.

Site owners who notice changes in traffic following an update are advised to look closely at Google’s update-specific guidance, which can be found via the Google Search Status Dashboard. The dashboard also allows users to check the status of an update rollout and subscribe to an RSS feed for alerts.

Wrapping Up a Year of Algorithm Updates

The December core update caps off a busy year of algorithm changes for Google Search.

We will closely watch traffic patterns and search rankings to assess the impact as the December update rolls out over the coming weeks.

Search Engine Journal will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they become available.

Featured Image: Rohit-Tripathi/Shutterstock

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Dec 12 2024
Google Launches New ’24 Hours’ View In Search Console via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google launches 24-hour data view in Search Console, offering near real-time insights for website performance monitoring.

  • Google Search Console now shows performance data from the last 24 hours with minimal delay.
  • The new feature includes hourly data breakdowns and works across Search, Discover, and News reports.
  • Google has cut data delay times by nearly half, making performance tracking more immediate.
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Dec 12 2024
Google Ads 2024 Recap: With An Eye To 2025 via @sejournal, @adsliaison

This year brought a steady stream of updates in Google Ads that spanned across campaign types and creative, media activation, and measurement solutions – many informed directly by advertiser feedback.

I won’t cover every big update here, but building on a talk I gave at Hero Conf in San Diego recently, I’ll highlight some of the key themes in this year’s launches and the technological and consumer trends driving product innovation in Google Ads. (It was wonderful to catch up with old marketing friends and meet so many new ones!)

Let’s dig into some of the top trends and launches of what’s possible now to help you engage audiences and drive better results – and get a sense of where we’re headed.

Search Is Evolving & Bringing New Opportunities For Advertisers

Google Search is undergoing significant changes – both in the types of questions people ask, how they’re asking them, and in the results Google provides.

For many years, people largely searched with short two- to three-word queries. For advertisers, that meant we could simply target a list of keywords matching those short queries to reach the right audience.

This has been changing.

We are seeing people asking longer, more complex questions.

Queries of five or more words are growing 1.5 times faster than shorter queries (Source: Google Internal Data, Global-EN, November 2022 – April 2023 vs. November 2023 – April 2024). You may notice this in your own search behavior.

This shift is why we continue to invest so heavily in broad match to help ensure your Search strategy can keep up with the complexity and diversity of searches.

AI Overviews in Search combines large language models (LLMs) with Google’s core search systems to provide responses and resources for more complex queries.

AI Overviews is now available in more than 100 countries and territories, reaching more than 1 billion users monthly in six languages (Source: Alphabet Q3 2024 Earnings).

Additionally, visual searches on Google are growing, thanks to huge leaps in multi-modal visual search capabilities with Lens.

Overall, we’re now seeing 20 billion visual searches a month on Lens, and 1 in 4 visual searches has commercial intent (Source: Google Internal Data, Global. Lens, August-September 2024).

To help advertisers connect with consumers in these new experiences when relevant, we’ve introduced Shopping ads in Lens results globally and text and Shopping ads in AI Overviews on mobile in the U.S.

More Personalized Shopping Discovery

Another new experience to highlight is the completely reimagined Shopping tab.

Currently live on mobile in the U.S., the new Shopping tab experience features a personalized feed for signed-in users and a dedicated deals page. It also incorporates features like Virtual Try-On.

Powered by Gemini models, Virtual Try-On lets potential customers see how an item of clothing drapes, clings, and stretches on real models of different sizes and shapes rig by combining the images of real, diverse human models with photos of your garments from Merchant Center.

All apparel brands with a shopping feed and high-quality imagery are automatically opted into Apparel Try-On and can show in both free listings and Shopping ads.

And while we’re on the topic of Shopping, Merchant Center Next (now simply called Merchant Center) rolled out globally this year.

The new interface has feature parity with the previous version, plus more features such as generated performance insights, tailored recommendations, and visual reporting that you generate with plain language prompts.

Launch, Iterate, And Scale Engaging Creatives

Creative generation solutions make it easier for businesses to create and launch higher-performing, on-brand ads.

The conversational experience for Search campaigns expanded to more languages and is available in English, Spanish, French, and German. It’s also now powered by Gemini models.

This feature is particularly helpful for new and small business advertisers.

We’ve seen that advertisers that use the conversational experience in Google Ads are 63% more likely to publish Search campaigns with “Good” or “Excellent” Ad Strength (Source: Google Internal Data. US, English campaigns published after using asset generation vs. published without using asset generation. January 1-31, 2024).

In short, that means they’re launching campaigns that are more likely to perform better from the start.

Image from author, December 2024

We also made continued improvements in our generative AI models and capabilities to make it a whole lot easier to create varieties of high-quality, on-brand image and video assets at scale.

The asset enhancements feature for responsive display ads uses AI to automatically modify your ad with smart cropping to highlight focal points, text assets, and logo overlays on relevant image areas, and improve image resolution and sharpness. It can even animate your static images for more engaging ads.

We also expanded generative creative capabilities beyond Performance Max to other campaign types this year.

Image asset generation is available in Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, and App campaigns. It is now powered by Imagen 3, Google’s latest text-to-image model that generates crisper, more lifelike images for your ads.

To generate on-brand image assets, you can upload image references to help generate multiple image assets that better match your brand’s visual style.

Image editing got more capabilities this year as well and is now available in Performance Max, Demand Gen, Search, Display, and App campaigns.

During campaign construction, you can remove, add, modify elements, and extend backgrounds in your image assets, as well as adjust images to fit any size, aspect ratio, or orientation.

Pro tip: Image editing can be great for moments like seasonal campaigns to make sure your assets are on-trend with different holidays and moments during the year so they resonate strongly with audiences.

Note that image editing is different from Product Studio, which is where you can edit your product assets in Google Merchant Center and the Google and YouTube app on Shopify.

Product Studio also now supports reference images to create assets that reflect your brand’s visual style. And with image-to-video animation, it can quickly generate videos from your existing product images.

Speaking Of Video . . .

Image from author, December 2024

Creating great video assets for all the inventory options on YouTube can be challenging for businesses of all sizes.

This fall, we introduced video enhancements, which use Google AI to automatically create additional flipped and shortened versions of your existing videos.

These new ads go through extensive quality review before going live. You can remove generated assets you don’t want or opt-out (if desired) at the campaign level.

Voice-over is a new self-service feature available globally in the asset library in Google Ads. Simply add your script, choose the voice option you want, and then click to generate a voice-over for any YouTube video ad in more than 12 languages.

Long-form content is still extremely popular on YouTube, of course, but Shorts now see 70 billion daily views and an audience of 2 billion signed-in users monthly. And Shorts views on connected TVs more than doubled last year.

This year, we launched branded QR codes on YouTube connected TV. Viewers can scan the code on their phone to visit your website, make a purchase, or learn more about your product or service.

In Video View Campaigns, we introduced new format buying controls with the option to run ads on Shorts inventory only.

And if you’re interested in tapping the power of YouTube creators, Partnership ads powered by BrandConnect are now available in Google Ads globally.

You can use videos made by a creator and promote them as ads, then create new audience segments based on viewers of those videos.

A new video-linking API is also available to link creator videos to your Google Ads account at scale.

New Controls. More Transparency.

We all know that when using AI, better inputs lead to better outputs – and outcomes for your business.

Google AI doesn’t automatically know the definition of better results for your business – only you do. That’s why we’ve continued to add more ways to tell Google what’s important to your business.

In Search campaigns, brand inclusions allow you to use broad match, while still constraining your brand campaigns to serving on specific brand or related product queries.

Brand exclusions are now available for all match types and Dynamic Search Ads to prevent your ads from serving on certain brand queries, including misspellings and variants.

We also rolled out these highly requested updates for Search campaigns:

  • Negative keywords now take misspellings into account. Just add one negative keyword to exclude traffic from all misspelling variations.
  • The search term report shows 9% more search terms on average by reporting misspelled queries with the correctly spelled query.
Image from author, December 2024

You can also see this focus on controls and transparency emphasized in many of the Performance Max updates this year, such as:

  • With Brand guidelines, you get to tell Google about your brand colors and font to generate on-brand visuals.
  • Campaign-level negative keywords – a top ask – are in beta and will be rolling out soon.
  • IP exclusions are supported, and account-level placement exclusions now also apply to the Search partner network.
  • A new experiment allows you to test the impact of final URL expansion to let Google AI select the most relevant landing pages and help you match to additional relevant search queries.
  • To give you more flexibility when managing both Performance Max and Standard Shopping together, Ad Rank is now used to determine which campaign serves when you have product overlap between them.

In addition to controls, we’ve also added more insights for Performance Max, including:

  • Asset-level conversion reporting.
  • Impression share reporting.
  • Demographics in audience insights.
  • New target pacing insights.

This is an area we are actively focused on. Stay tuned for more in 2025!

More Bidding Options Tailored To Specific Goals

Another area I want to call out is the continued focus on expanding and improving bidding capabilities tailored to advertisers’ specific goals.

Here’s a look at some of the work happening in this area:

For retailers with both online and physical stores, omnichannel shoppers tend to spend more.

In Demand Gen campaigns, Omnichannel Goals is now in beta to give those retailers the ability to optimize towards both online conversions and Store Visits.

For lead gen advertisers, the customer journey can be complex. And, of course, not every customer has the same value to your business.

I’ve talked a lot about value-based bidding for lead gen advertisers this year, including a series of short videos followed by deeper dives here in Search Engine Journal.

Continuing to make value-based bidding easier to understand and execute will continue to be a focus area because we’ve seen the positive results it can drive for advertisers.

Lifecycle goals offer additional options to optimize toward your most valuable customers:

  • Last month, we added the ability to use custom experiments in PMax (in beta) and Search to test new customer acquisition.
  • The new retention goal is currently in beta for Performance Max. It allows you to optimize your campaign to win back lapsed customers to reduce churn rates.

And lastly, bidding to profit has also been a top ask from customers.

The new gross profit goal is in beta in Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns. It pulls in profit data from sources you already have, like Merchant Center, enabling you to bid to profit with Smart Bidding.

You can also easily switch between revenue and profit goals without disrupting performance.

Data, Measurement & Privacy

Image from author, December 2024

While advancements like image generation may capture attention, the solutions that provide Google AI with the necessary data are equally vital.

Your first-party data is the foundation for better performance and measurement. It helps drive better results and safeguard your campaigns against the impact of privacy changes and signal loss.

We’ve developed a number of privacy-centric solutions that enable durable measurement and allow you to make the most of your first-party data.

Google Ads Data Manager is a big step forward in simplifying the process of connecting your first-party data sources to your account and keeping your audience lists and conversion data complete and accurate.

This fall, we introduced confidential matching for Customer Match in Google Ads Data Manager. It securely processes first-party data for use in Google Ads.

This happens automatically in the background so you don’t have to think about it other than knowing your data remains encrypted and unseen by anyone – including Google.

We’ve also launched the option to encrypt the data yourself and receive proof that your data is processed as intended. And, we are currently running a closed beta to enable confidential matching for enhanced conversions for web.

Tag diagnostics for the Google Tag is available in Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, and Google Analytics to help you quickly identify and troubleshoot potential issues.

Measurement diagnostics for Enhanced Conversions for Leads is also fully rolled out in Google Ads. Use it to monitor your setup and ensure you can take action against the offline data you share with Google.

While we’re on lead generation, new lead funnel reporting for lead gen gives you added visibility into offline conversions when you share qualified and converted leads with Google.

Lastly, advanced consent mode includes two new parameters for sending consent signals needed for ad personalization and remarketing purposes to Google.

The easiest way to enable and maintain advanced consent mode is to work with a Google CMP partner.

The new integrated CMP setup in the Google Tag UI makes this even easier with select partners. Just connect your CMP and configure consent settings right within the Google Tag UI – no code editing needed.

Looking Ahead

AI’s power comes in helping you dynamically adapt to market shifts and create better experiences – and ultimately better outcomes – for your customers and your business.

When you put AI to work with good data and inputs about what you know about your business and goals, you can spend more time focused on, well, the joy of marketing.

In the year ahead, you can expect us to continue building on these capabilities to help you create and measure engaging experiences that drive incremental value for your business.

Keep the feedback coming, and be sure to check out the full recap of top launches across each campaign type in Google Ads this year!

More Resources:

Featured Image: Ginny Marvin/Google

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Dec 12 2024
Communicating The Impact Of AI On SEO To C-Level via @sejournal, @TaylorDanRW

AI has emerged as one of the most transformative and disruptive forces in marketing as an industry in a long time, probably the most impactful since the mass adoption of the internet.

It will continue to evolve and change search as a practice for years to come.

While brands are working on AI adoption at an organizational level, the benefits and applications to most departments within the business are clear to the C-level.

When it comes to SEO, the opportunities and threats are less clear.

As an industry, we’re still deliberating how we classify ChatGPT (and other large language model tools). Are they search engines or discovery engines?

If we don’t have clear definitions of what is happening in the industry, we can’t expect our C-level stakeholders to understand – and this can breed uncertainty.

There are enough headlines surrounding AI from various mainstream publications that the perception of, and application capabilities of AI can vary greatly depending on your field of view.

To best explain and communicate how worried – or excited – your C-suite stakeholders need to be with the impact of AI on your SEO program, you need to be able to make it relatable.

This often comes down to the potential impact on website traffic (all channels), and the measurable impact on conversions (and the ROI/CPA stemming from specific channels). But also includes how it affects your audience.

AI Adoption In Your Audience

Before, we look at how to assess your SEO opportunities and threats with AI. A key part of this is understanding how your target markets perceive AI, their planning on adopting AI in their daily lives, and what opportunities AI has to enter their lives seamlessly.

Depending on your target markets, you’ll find active AI adoption rates differ.

Adopting any new technology relies on its ability to provide value by either enhancing user experience or solving a disutility. To do this, it has to achieve ARC:

  • Accessibility.
  • Reliability.
  • Cost.

Only by achieving these three things while providing value can a new technology gain mass market adoption.

Different demographics are adopting AI at different rates.

Looking at consumer surveys and reports, we see Gen Z and Gen Alpha embracing AI and actively utilizing platforms other than Google as the first port of call to discover information and content.

This is supported by a recent data release by Ofcom (Online Nation 2024 Report), which identified that those aged 18-24 are the highest adopters of AI technologies.

It is reported that 1 in 4 (27%) uses ChatGPT at least monthly, with 1 in 3 of this age segment using it.

Another notable data point from this report is that men are more likely to adopt AI, with 50% reporting using AI tools, compared to only 33% of women.

Adoption rates don’t tell the full story.

Threads reached 100 million users in less than a week, but quality issues have seen demand and daily active users (DAU) drop substantially.

A key part factor in this has been Threads’ algorithm capabilities to return satisfying and relevant content to users, and this same challenge is facing LLM tools such as ChatGPT.

The Ofcom Online Nation 2024 Report found that only 1 in 5 (18%) of adults found the information on ChatGPT to be reliable, but this rose to 33% among young adults.

Passive AI Adoption

ChatGPT and the other LLM tools fall under the banner of active AI adoption. Using these tools is a conscious adoption of AI, as you don’t accidentally log in to Claude or Perplexity.

In my opinion, the greater “softening” of the mass market and normalization of LLM tools and AI in the mainstream will come from the passive AI touchpoints that our target audiences are subjected to.

These include things like:

  • The appearance of Google AI Overviews and Bing Generative Search frequently appearing as part of routine internet usage.
  • Additional prompts to use AI tools such as virtual try-ons.
  • Phone manufacturers promoting AI-driven features such as Gemini and Circle Search as product unique selling points (USPs).
  • Apple’s integration of Intelligence.
  • Spotify’s AI DJ.
  • Meta AI’s integration into their suite of products.

These non-invasive touchpoints will, over time, soften attitudes towards AI and build trust, leading to increased adoption elsewhere.

This means that we need to understand where our users spend their time, and the potential exposure to passive AI interactions.

To do this, we need to understand which channels have higher than average term usage, and this helps us identify which platforms our audience over-indexes on.

For example, the topic of “eyeliner” over-indexes on Facebook and Instagram and under-indexes on Reddit and LinkedIn, which is the same channel indexing patterns as “Adidas Samba”.

Understanding which channels your audience is actively engaging with also aids buy-in from other internal marketers and agencies handling the non-SEO channels, and reaches closer to a collaborative integrated communications strategy.

This is a great opportunity to get buy-in from other marketing stakeholders, but if your success metrics are bound to metrics such as directly attributable organic traffic – this is a threat.

Adapting To AI-Origin Users

AI introduces opportunities, but also raises the bar for channel performance.

As mentioned earlier in the article, this means a better understanding of your product and which channels are the right fit, in addition to visibility in organic search.

One way we can do this, in addition to data from third-party tools, is to utilize the Kano Model. The Kano model is a framework traditionally used to categorize and prioritize customer needs and can be effectively applied to assess and enhance product-channel fit in marketing.

For marketing product-channel fit, think of the channel (e.g., email, social media, SEO, paid ads) as a “feature” and map how well it satisfies user expectations.

To adapt and reach our target audiences as they adopt AI tools, or AI product features in existing tools, we as marketers need to:

  • Shift from Broad Channels to Intent-Driven Channels: Focus on channels that align with customer intent, as AI improves its ability to match consumer needs in real-time.
  • Embrace AI-Native Platforms: Platforms like ChatGPT or AI-powered discovery engines require new strategies for delivering benefit-focused, concise, and conversational content.

Monitoring AI Traffic

Another key part of communicating your exposure to LLMs and AI chatbots is the accurate tracking of AI traffic to your website.

This also informs your marketing strategies and adaptation to cater to shifting user behaviors within your target audience.

Traffic from LLMs can be easily monitored through Google Analytics 4 Explore reports, or through Google Looker Studio.

The method for segmenting data depends on the objective, who needs data access, and to what depth.

Tracking LLM traffic via Looker Studio. Image from author, December 2024

GA4 Explore Reports are effective for routine updates, such as monthly reporting, and provide clients with direct access to data through their Google Analytics accounts.

Looker Studio offers two distinct approaches. The first focuses on detailed, client-specific reports that track granular data, such as landing pages and events triggered by LLM traffic, tailored to individual needs.

The second is a quick overview dashboard, which is less customized but allows easy navigation through GA4 accounts, making it useful for ad hoc analysis and monitoring.

Marketers Must Adapt And Align

AI is transforming marketing, offering new opportunities and challenges across all marketing channels. To adapt, marketers must align strategies with evolving user behaviors and clearly communicate AI’s impact on traffic, conversions, and audience engagement to the C-suite and wider business stakeholders.

By focusing on clear communication, measurement and simple visualizations, and strategic adaptation of AI technologies into existing processes, brands can successfully navigate and take advantage of opportunities presented by AI while transforming and future-proofing the marketing function.

More Resources:

Featured Image: wenich_mit/Shutterstock

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Dec 12 2024
Automattic Removes WP Engine Client List From Tracker Site via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Automattic removed a spreadsheet containing the domain names of WP Engine customers from the WP Engine Tracker website. The removal is in response to a preliminary injunction granted to WP Engine, ordering Automattic and Matt Mullenweg to remove the spreadsheet within 72 hours.

The preliminary injunction was warmly received on X (formerly Twitter), a tweet by Joe Youngblood representative of the general sentiment:

“The ruling was a gigantic win for small businesses and entrepreneurs that rely on open source keeping it’s promises. That includes allowing webhosts to host and not stealing code repositories.

I am hopeful the full outcome of this looks much the same.”

Someone else tweeted:

“Unbiased parties watching on the sidelines think the court got it right. This was obvious from day one.

Next step for you guys is to try to settle out of court to prevent further embarrassment and reduce potential risk in damages.”

Mullenweg’s Dispute With WP Engine

Matt Mullenweg began an attack against WP Engine on September 20, 2024 after WP Engine declined to pay tens of millions of dollars, what WP Engine’s attorney’s called “extortionate monetary demands” in a cease and desist letter sent to Automattic’s Chief Legal Officer on September 23rd.

On November 6th Automattic intensified the pressure on WP Engine by launching a website called WP Engine Tracker that offered a list of WP Engine customers that could be used by other web hosts to solicit the clients with offers to leave WP Engine.

Solicitations of WP Engine customers apparently followed, as related by a Redditor in a discussion about the WP Engine Tracker website:

“I was out of the office for some medical procedures, so I missed the WPE Tracker thing. However, this explains why I’ve received unsolicited hosting calls from certain operations. Clearly, someone is mining it to solicit business. Absolutely aggravating and also completely expected.

All this does is further entrench me on WP Engine. Good work, Matt, you dweeb.”

The WP Engine Tracker website became evidence of the harm Mullenweg was causing to WP Engine and was cited in the request for a preliminary injunction.

The judge sided with WP Engine and granted the preliminary injunction, requiring among many other things that Automattic and Mullenweg take down the list of WP Engine customers.

The court order states:

“Within 72 hours, Defendants are ORDERED to:

…(a) remove the purported list of WPEngine customers contained in the “domains.csv” file linked to Defendants’ wordpressenginetracker.com website (which was launched on or about
November 7, 2024) and stored in the associated GitHub repository located at https://github.com/wordpressenginetracker/wordpressenginetracker.github.io.”

The CSV file was subsequently removed although the link to a non-existent file , with a link showing zero :

Screenshot Of WP Engine Tracker Website

Clicking the link leads to a 404 error response message.

Screenshot Of 404 Error Response For CSV Download

A pull request on GitHub shows that a request was made to remove the CSV file on December 11th.

“Remove CTA to download list of sites #29

wordpressenginetracker commented 9 hours ago
This PR removes the text and download link to download the list of sites that have are still using WPE”

Screenshot Of GitHub Pull Request

Advanced Custom Fields Plugin

Automattic removed WP Engine’s Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin from the official WordPress.org plugin repository and replaced it with Automattic’s cloned version, renamed as Secure Custom Fields (SCF).

The preliminary injunction orders Automattic to also restore access to the Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plugin repository:

“Within 72 hours, Defendants are ORDERED to:

…(v) returning and restoring WPEngine’s access to and control of its Advanced Custom Fields (“ACF”) plugin directory listing at https://wordpress.org/plugins/advanced-customfields, as it existed as of September 20, 2024.”

The cloned SCF plugin currently still exists at that URL, although Automattic still has time to take it down.

Screenshot Of SCF Plugin In The ACF Directory Listing

Featured Image by Shutterstock/tomertu

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