Google creates a new way for journalists to get the facts

Google has launched beta access to a platform called Google Datasets. It operates in the same way that Google Search does, except the results are focused on data that comes from certifiable sources like universities and governments, as well as personal or business websites. You can try it out here: https://toolbox.google.com/datasetsearch

Key Takeaway

With journalists becoming scarce (as many outlets either struggle to maintain their employees, or simply vanish), there's more pressure on them than ever to produce content faster, or sift through massive amounts of data to find something real to report on. This  there have been a number of services popping up with the intent of helping journalists sort through the deluge, like HARO from Cision which intends to connect businesses and researchers with journalists in a trusted forum for data exchange. The problem with these platforms historically, is that they simply add to the pile of content that journalists already have to sort through.

Google's solution puts the power back in the hands of journalists, but also gives businesses the ability to get on to the platform by using code on their websites to tell Google what their data is about, and how trustworthy it is. This will have huge impact on the SEO space for those that know how to take advantage of it.

Apple is trying to woo The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times into using their news platform

Back in March, Apple acquired Texture - a news and magazine subscription platform that allows you to pay one price to access a large number of outlets. This week they've been in talks with WSJ and NYT to get them to join the platform in exchange for Apple and Texture's reach and frequency of readership.

Key Takeaway

This isn't likely to happen.

Remember two years ago when Facebook Instant came out? The media giant spent a lot of time and money trying to get every major news outlet to join the platform with the same promise. And they didn't lie. Traffic went through the roof for many of the publishers that jumped on. The problem was that the traffic that came wasn't high quality traffic.

For outlets like NYT and WSJ, they're looking for very particular types of readers who will spend money on subscriptions. High traffic numbers don't typically yield those kinds of results as those readers are usually just in for a quick hit from a headline, and then they're back to their newsfeed from all the other outlets. To grow those numbers, their market is going to come from big stories, not more access to large audiences (who already know who they are).

At least 1/4 of Americans have uninstalled the Facebook app

According to new Pew Research findings, there is a large trend of Facebook users abandoning the platform by uninstalling the app. The stats get far worse if you dig deeper into the numbers. Amongst millenials, 44% have taken steps to remove Facebook from their lives including any of the following actions:

• Adjusted privacy settings
• Taken a break for a few weeks
• Deleted the app

Key Takeaway

This isn't a new trend, we've been seeing this happen over time. In fact, if you dive into search trends over the past 15 years, you can see that Facebook has a very typical bellcurve of any tech giant, and they're back to attention levels in 2008:

To put things in perspective, Facebook became publicly available in 2006, and hit "peak" popularity in 2012 when they took the company on to the stock market. It's never risen (in search) since then. The company has been looking for their next big thing for 6 years, and unless they magically find something in the next two, they'll officially go the way of MySpace.