Every month at SIMS, Max provides a brief run-down of just some of the tech-related news that may affect small businesses, and agencies that work with small businesses and we post the links here. If any of these catch your interest, but you're not sure how they would affect you, feel free to get in touch and ask!
While we were away for the summer break, Google became a different company:
http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/10/9128083/sundar-pichai-ceo-google-larry-page-sergey-brin
Windows 10 sets Edge as the default browser and, with it, Bing as a default search engine:
https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2015/07/30/an-open-letter-to-microsofts-ceo-dont-roll-back-the-clock-on-choice-and-control/
Andrew was asking about GTM, this is a little technical, but useful for non-devs:
http://ipullrank.com/google-tag-manager/
Android Pay is now live (although I think it may be US only for now?), along with an updated version of Google Wallet both for Android and iOS.
I've linked to this before, but they have a new website:
http://ecomchat.com
There have been a lot of AdWords features, a huge number of which are related to mobile and eCommerce. If you're interested in the specifics, I recommend some time reading the Inside AdWords blog. If you pay someone else to do your ads, speak to them about how to implement these features.
Google are now allowing advertisers the chance to upload lists of customer email addresses, and advertise directly to them:
http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/Google-brings-you-closer-to-your-customers.html
“Customer Match allows you to upload a list of email addresses, which can be matched to signed-in users on Google in a secure and privacy-safe way. From there, you can build campaigns and ads specifically designed to reach your audience. Users can control the ads they see, including Customer Match ads, by opting out of personalized ads or by muting or blocking ads from individual advertisers through Google Ads Settings.”
Google's inbox-based email ads are now available to all advertisers:
http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/native-gmail-ads-arrive-in-adwords.html
“ advertisers can manage native Gmail ads right in AdWords by setting up a Display Network campaign and creating a Gmail ads format in the Ad gallery.”
You (or at least someone you pay) can make 360-degree video ads:
http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/see-future-of-video-by-looking-behind.html
“360 degree video ads let you engage your audience in an entirely new way. Available today in Chrome and the YouTube app on Android and iOS, viewers can explore every angle of your videos by dragging their mouse or moving their phone to shift their POV 360 degrees – up, down, left or right. Thanks to the ability simply to move your phone to see different parts of the video, 360 video ads are a truly mobile-first video ad product.”
Contactless limit is now increased to £30 - this includes Apple Pay. There are some imaginative uses of this technology already.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34110348
Analytics updates have been technical, but if you're feeling analytical, dive in to the releases for July 2015 and September 2015.
Content blockers are here, they are in iOS 9. http://www.imore.com/best-content-and-ad-blockers-iphone-ipad
Google My Business app gets an update. Android only for now. iOS coming soon.
http://searchengineland.com/the-google-my-business-app-gets-an-update-230351
Another step towards Facebook Messenger becoming it's own platform. Facebook M.
https://www.facebook.com/Davemarcus/posts/10156070660595195
Last mentioned back in May, tweets are now a full-time, first-class citizen in search results:
http://searchengineland.com/google-officially-expands-twitter-into-desktop-search-results-228723