“We released several minor improvements during this timeframe, part of our regular and routine efforts to improve relevancy,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Journal. [Source: Search Engine Journal]
Adobe wants to make it easier for marketers to reach its email targets with creative messaging. That’s why it’s adding drag-and-drop functionality to Adobe Campaign in early 2018. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
Recently, Google had published a Chrome app on the Windows Store that simply opened up the download page to the actual browser. While Google never intended to bring the actual browser to the Microsoft Store, Microsoft responded yesterday by removing the actual link to the Google app. [Source: TIMES NOW]
Google’s latest move to block “intrusive” ads starting February 15 next year has made digital publishers wary and left them wondering how such a unilateral, top-down approach could impact their bottom line. [Source: The Times of India]
As data management platform (DMP) Lotame gears up for compliance with the upcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), some of the far-reaching changes are coming into focus. [Source: MARTECH TODAY]
Flipkart is all geared up to double down its work with artificial intelligence technologies, across operations ranging from conversational search, visual similarity, better last-mile delivery, fraud detection, personalisation to warehousing. [Source: The Economic Times]
The social network giant said on 18th December that it will penalize Page owners and people who resort to “engagement bait,” which means posts that encourage users to like, comment or tag people in the comments section in order to gain wider visibility of their content. [Source: TechCrunch]
Facebook launched a new facial recognition feature called Photo Review that will alert you when your face shows up in newly posted photos so you can tag yourself, leave it be, ask the uploader to take the photo down, or report it to Facebook. [Source: TechCrunch]
Earlier this month, Snapchat began rolling out animated filters (like a twinkling wreath of holiday lights) that move across the screen when users take a photo or video. Now, the platform is opening up animated filters for advertisers that enable users to snap and share moving graphics. [Source: ADWEEK]
This year, people turned to Google Search to discover the secrets of slime and locate solar eclipse glasses, as well as to learn how to help hurricane victims, and support the city of Las Vegas in the wake of October’s mass shooting. [Source: think with Google]
Expert Opinion:
Q. 5 things that worked for Zoho in our journey of Entrepreneurship
The journey of entrepreneurship has been long and struggle some, but we were able to hold firmly, withstand the storms, only to emerge successfully as a company. Here are five things that worked for us in our journey of success.
- Dogfooding
Before you launch your products, use them internally. Once you use them for your day-to-day work, you will be able to sort out the issues and anomalies long before the products hit the market. For instance, we cannot use Outlook internally while providing Zoho mail to the outside world. We will have to use the same internally too, so that issues, if any, can be addressed well in advance, instead of waiting for the clients to raise them.
- Look beyond academic credentials
When you look forward to building a start-up, or scale-up the existing one, you will realize that most of the academic environments prepare talent for regimented evaluations in sanitized environments. However, startups are dynamic and look for something beyond the paper degree. They look for learning potential, risk-taking capacity, resilience, and the ability to try again, after being defeated, with an undefeated strength.
- Focus on Products that work well together
The product you build is going to enter a highly cohesive world of interconnectivity. Every customer of yours also uses other products and services, some of which might be of your competitors. Thinking about the customer first, and giving him the highest priority by ensuring that your products and services play in-sync with others will give your company a positive boost. This can be done by sharing data, unifying interfaces, complementing features, and co-ordinating workflows.
- Empower your customers
It is not possible to asses every need of the customer as each customer is unique. 5% of your product features may be not satisfactory for all. So, instead of just enabling them to do X or Y, build your product, or architect your service in such a way that they are empowered to build on top of it. Give them a room for customization by allowing to add their own coded modules, loose-coupling what you provide with what others provide, or separating design from data so that it can be consumed and repurposed in interesting new ways.
- Think long-term about running the marathon, rather than a quick sprint
There are companies that look for fast money and quick exit, and then there are those that outlive the individuals. Leave a lasting legacy by building value and wealth over the decades. When you keep your needs to a minimum and think long-term about the company’s future, you may not be able to enjoy the quick windfalls and sudden spurts of prosperity. However, you will be able to sustain the storm of struggles and thrive long enough to finally emerge successfully as a brand.
Patience and perseverance are the two keys when sticking to these points, but they have worked for us effectively and contributed to Zoho’s success.
Rajendran Dandapani, Business Solutions Evangelist at Zoho Corporation
