Weekend Digital Media Round-up: Google’s Search Console Index Coverage Report, Facebook’s updates for Pages, Pinterest’s Max Width Video Ads and more…

1. Google: The Search Console Index Coverage Report is now more accurate

Google has noted it upgraded the Index Coverage report to a “new, more accurate system.” You also might see some changes in the reporting from before July 14th after August 1 because of how Google now measures and reports on the indexed URLs within Google Search Console. [Source: Search Engine Land]

2. Facebook Announces New Update for Pages, Adding Recommendation Tools and Connection Options

Facebook is rolling out a bunch of updates for business Pages in order to make it easier for local businesses in particular to maximize their exposure on the platform, and to utilize customer word of mouth more effectively. [Source: Social Media Today]

3. Pinterest Rolls Out Max Width Video Ads to All Businesses

Pinterest has now announced that its attention-grabbing, ‘max width’ video ads are being made available to all advertisers globally. [Source: Social Media Today]

4. Google to Integrate 3 New Features in Search Results

In a wave of updates, Google aims to launch not one, but three new features to the search results dedicated to Q&A, FAQs, and How-to content. [Source: Logicserve Digital]

5. Govt explores option to block social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is examining the option of blocking popular social media apps such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram in order to curb fake news and child pornography and has asked telcos and internet service providers to suggest ways for doing so. [Source: The Economic Times]

6. Facebook Rolls Out Personalized Function Bar Shortcuts

Facebook is actually showing each user a customized set of shortcuts on the function bar based on their individual activity. [Source: Social Media Today]

7. Google extends added character benefits of Responsive Search Ads to text ads

Google will start rolling out its responsive search ads to more accounts in English, French, German and Spanish starting in September. Responsive text ads can display with three headlines and two descriptions with up to 90 characters each. In the meantime, the company is extending the added real estate benefits of these longer units to existing text ads. [Source: Search Engine Land]

8. Facebook removes the option for auto posting tweets and retweets from Twitter

Popular social media platform Facebook announced that it had deprecated its Publish action feature from its API. This feature earlier made it possible for apps to publish posts on Facebook as the logged-in user. [Source: Logicserve Digital]

9. Google Adds New Tools to Data Studio to Improve Presentation Options

Google has added some new presentation and collection options to its Data Studio tool, providing additional considerations for building data-based reports. [Source: Social Media Today]

10. Facebook Adds New AR Games to Messenger Video Chats

Facebook continues to build on its interactive AR tools, this time through the addition of group games in Messenger video chats. The option will be available at any time during a video chat, with up to six people able to participate in a game at once. [Source: Social Media Today]