I’m seeing interesting cases where\u00a0Facebook, Google or other gorillas tweak content presentation, and then some other company’s business is directly impacted. \u00a0The gorillas have increasing control (and power) over user attention.<\/p>\n
For example, Demand Media took a huge hit<\/a>\u00a0after Google’s search engine updates lowered rankings for low-quality content. \u00a0(DMD <\/a>is down 80%).<\/p>\n Zynga enjoyed spectacular early success with some of the first social games on Facebook. \u00a0But as game updates clogged feeds, Facebook made presentation changes to improve feed quality, and Zynga suffered<\/a>. \u00a0(ZNGA <\/a>is down 60%). \u00a0Facebook continues to tweak<\/a> how feed content is selected and presented.<\/p>\n More recently, Google added a “Promotions” tab<\/a> to Gmail, moving most marketing emails out of the main inbox view. \u00a0That directly affected Groupon<\/a>, who’s trying to rely less on the daily coupon. \u00a0(GRPN <\/a>down 20% so far).<\/p>\n And now, Gmail added a prominent “unsubscribe link”<\/a> to the top of promotional emails, which will impact email marketing performance even more. \u00a0(Unsubscribe is one of many “quick action<\/a>” buttons that Gmail has been rolling out.)<\/p>\n It’s a never-ending battle between those who want user attention, and those who manage it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m seeing interesting cases where\u00a0Facebook, Google or other gorillas tweak content presentation, and then some other company’s business is directly impacted. \u00a0The gorillas have increasing control (and power) over user attention. For example, Demand Media took a huge hit\u00a0after Google’s … Continue reading