Google announced today that it has launched the ability to track iOS downloads that were driven by in-app display ad campaigns in AdWords. You could already track Android app downloads within AdWords, but this will make for a more complete experience for app marketers.
“Apps are a powerful way to keep your most loyal users engaged, and can also be a real driver of revenue for marketers big and small,” says Google product manager Morgan Hallmon. “When advertising apps, the key is to know what’s working and what’s not.”
“To set up iOS conversion tracking, advertisers need to create a single code snippet in their AdWords account and install it in their app,” explains Hallmon. “This snippet is accessible in the AdWords interface in the same place where advertisers have been able to codelessly track Android downloads. With iOS conversion tracking, marketers can better understand which campaigns are most effective at driving app downloads. These enhanced insights help marketers iterate on app promotion strategies to reach their return on investment goals, with the help of features like the Conversion Optimizer for apps.”
Hallmon also points to the following webinar about understanding app users with Google Analytics, which you may find helpful if you have 45 minutes:
Unfortunately there’s no transcript of the video available on YouTube, so you’ll need to actually watch it to absorb the content within.
Earlier, we told you about the new Facebook For Android update, and the Facebook Messenger for Android update (both of which come with some improvements to the messaging experience). Facebook has also pushed out an update to its iOS app. Facebook for iOS 5.0.1 includes iOS 6 and iPhone 5 support, the company notes (as if there were any question).
Here’s what’s new, as highlighted by Facebook:
Scrolling through news feed is faster than ever
New banner lets you tap to quickly see more stories – no need to refresh
Photos open fast and close with one downward swipe
StumbleUpon has just launched a new app for iOS, which brings some features to the StumbleUpon experience still absent from the desktop and Android versions. But that’s not to say they won’t be coming.
“We made the app a lot more fun,” StumbleUpon’s new VP, Product, Cody Simms, tells WebProNews.
The app brings some new user identity-related features to the table, as well as a faster way of stumbling and some new recommendation elements.
The Homepage
Let’s start with the homepage. It now consists of “Content For You,” “Trending” content, “Interest” and “Activity” (as well as “StumbleDNA,” but more on that later).
Content For You is essentially the basic StumbleUpon experience that you’re used to – content based on your interests. Trending is new, and allows you to stumble through content that is trending throughout the StumbleUpon universe. This should put the most popular content literally front and center on StumbleUpon (it’s the center section on the homepage). The Activity feature is content that people you know or who are “like minded” to you have liked. Specifically, it includes two things: content people you follow have liked and content from “Experts”. Experts are determined by how much content they have shared in a particular subject area that has resonated with the larger StumbleUpon community.
The Interest feature lets you select from a list of your preferred topics (as well as the usual photos, videos, news, and “following”). It’s essentially the previous homepage experience rolled up into the smallest box on the screen in the bottom corner.
Disappointingly absent is the Explore Box StumbleUpon introduced last year, which added a nice search-like feature to the service, enabling you to easily stumble through content related to nearly any topic you happen to find yourself interested in, in the moment. In my opinion, this is one of the best features StumbleUpon has ever added, and I would not be happy to see it go away from the greater StumbleUpon experience. Luckily, it seems that will not be the case.
Simms tells us, “The Explore Box will be available in a future release. It’s still an important feature for our community.”
Last year, StumbleUpon also introduced channels. For example, you can follow the WebProNews channel, and stumble specifically through our stuff, and perhaps get more from us in your content mix. Channels are not highlighted in the new app, but may be more in a future update.
“You can see the Channels you follow on your profile, but this version of the app does not include the ability to see and opt into new Channels,” Simms explains. “In the future you will be able to manage Channels through the mobile app. Content from Channels you already subscribe to will be included in your Stumble stream on the app.”
Stumbling
Perhaps the biggest improvement to the app in terms of user experience, is the new “Slide” feature. It’s a preview feature, which lets you slide/swipe through quick previews of the pages StumbleUpon is serving you without having to actually wait for the pages to load, enabling you to browse through content much more quickly. You do this while the page loads in the background. Once the page is fully loaded, the preview disappears (or you can simply tap on the page itself to go to it and close the preview).
This does not replace the swipe-to-Stumble feature that was already a part of the mobile StumbleUpon experience. It simply adds another layer over top of it.
It’s one of those things you just have to use yourself to appreciate. It really does save a lot of time in the content discovery process, and I doubt we’ll see many complaints from users who will no longer have to sit and wait just to see what a page is even about.
Simms tells us that since he’s been using the app, he finds himself wanting to use similar functionality in other unrelated apps, such as email. “That’s when I knew we were onto something,” he says.
What That Means For Content Providers
Unfortunately, this feature may come with a negative side effect for content providers, who could face a decrease in StumbleUpon referrals as Stumble-happy users quickly browse through previews, sidestepping the actual pages. This seemingly makes the title and visuals of your content more important than ever for StumbleUpon success. You’ll need to give users some reason to stop and actually let your page load as they’re quickly breezing through previews. Granted, these things have pretty much always been major factors in the success of a piece of content on StumbleUpon, but perhaps they are even more so now.
As far as what image StumbleUpon displays in the preview, Sims says, “We use an algorithm to determine the best image/thumbnail to display. If there isn’t a quality image we generate a screenshot of the page. Content providers have no control of this.”
You better make them all good.
StumbleUpon has shown time and time again that it can be a major driver of traffic to websites. While there is still plenty of potential for that, I have to wonder how much this feature will affect it, especially if it makes its way throughout the rest of StumbleUpon’s offerings.
“The page needs to fully load for it to count as a page view (and the page starts to load the instant the Slide appears),” Simms says. “We believe that Slide helps ensure users have intent to view the page they clicked on and could potentially result in higher engagement.”
This is definitely a valid point, as some have questioned the quality of StumbleUpon referrals in the past, given the semi-randomness of content (I say “semi” because content is targeted based on users’ interests, sometimes more specifically than others, depending on what exactly the user is stumbling through).
You can still thumb up/down content based on the preview, without having to wait for the actual page to load. It’s worth noting that occasionally, you may have to wait for the preview itself to load.
Identity
One of the new focuses for StumbleUpon is user identity, and the cornerstone of this is a new feature called StumbleDNA. Every user has their own StumbleDNA based on the content they like. The thinking is that this can help users find other users to gravitate towards, based on the StumbleDNA they carry. Find someone whose StumbleDNA is similar to yours? Why not be friends?
StumbleUpon has always been social to some extent, but for many users (myself included), these features have likely taken a backseat to personal discovery. This seems to be a way for StumbleUpon to thrust the social elements a bit more into the forefront and encourage interaction among users.
StumbleDNA is represented by a colored bar. Your personal StumbleDNA can be seen across the top of the page on the homepage and throughout the StumbleUpon experience (you can see it in the first image above). It’s basically a spectrum-like graphic. Colors represent categories of interest.
“We took our 500+ interests and rolled them into 12 master interest categories,” says Simms. “The design team then picked colors for the 12 categories that were bright and bold and some of the colors were loosely linked to the interest category (ex. green and ecommerce). The placement of the interests/colors is consistent in order across every individuals’ StumbleDNA so people can compare themselves against others.”
“It’s important to note that this is just the beginning of our work on identity and StumbleDNA,” he adds. “This feature and other features that help bring identity into the StumbleUpon experience will evolve across future mobile and desktop releases.”
“In the future, we plan to include a dedicated page outlining interest colors and how they relate to StumbleDNA,” he notes. “For now, you can go to filter interests (in the top right hand nav bar) and see colors that correspond to each Interest.”
Location-Based Stumbling On The Horizon?
The app now utilizes location information (if you let it). When you first open the new app, it asks to user your location data. Don’t expect that to translate into more local content, however. At least not just yet.
“Location is important but is not currently something we factor into recommendations other than international geography,” Simms tells us. It’s more about device specific recommendations, he says, adding, “Geo location is a great use case for us in the future.”
This could certainly present some new opportunities for local businesses. Users might also like to see StumbleUpon launch an actual feature that lets you tap into location – perhaps a “Stumble Nearby” feature, similar to Google+’s “Nearby” feature (but likely more interesting).
While, all of these new features are iOS only (both iPad and iPhone), StumbleUpon will incorporate, at least some of them into the desktop and Android versions eventually. Simms wouldn’t share any timeframe details on that, but this does appear to be the direction the greater StumbleUpon is headed in. They just wanted to start with iOS and capitalize on all of the current enthusiasm of the iPhone 5 and iOS 6.
Google announced a few updates for its Google Drive apps for iOS and Android.
The iOS app has added the ability to edit documents, a feature that has been available on the Android app for some time. Additionally, on the iOS app, you can now view presentations on an iPhone or iPad and create new folders, move files into folders and upload files from your device directly in the drive app.
On Android, users can now add comments reply to existing comments and view tables in Google Docs. Users will also get the same presentation viewing and organization features as the iOS update.
Google says native editing and real-time collaboration for spreadsheets are on the way.
Yahoo announced that it has some new features for fantasy football this year. This is the company’s fifteenth year of offering fantasy football, and they’re offering fans the ability to make money by competing in the Yahoo Pro Leagues, which Yahoo says have the highest percentage payouts and most cash prizes available. Users can win up to $500.
Yahoo’s Keeper Leagues also now have more customization options available. Players can now import traded draft picks from last season, set a keeper deadline, allow managers to declare keepers and approve and assign keepers to their drafts.
Ken Fuchs, Yahoo’s VP of Global Media and Head of Sports, Men’s and Games, says, “We have some exciting things lined up for Yahoo! Fantasy Football this year that make it easy and fun to keep tabs on the games. Not only do fans have the opportunity to win some cash prizes this year, they can now easily improve their teams while on the go from any device or TV and access news content with just a quick tap on any screen.”
Yahoo says it’s the only platform that offers fans the four-screen experience (PC, phone, TV, tablet). Technically, it’s even more than four screens, as the universal iOS app works for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
Yahoo’s Fantasy Football ’12 apps also now include trading and waiver options that let players manage their teams from any of these devices.
Yahoo is also attracting the advertisers with its fantasy football offerings. The company says it is seeing the most advertisers sign up for it this year. Advertisers include Citi, Miller Lite, Snickers, Toyota and Visa.
WWE has launched a new mobile app for iOS and Android, giving fans access to to a “second screen TV companion experience,” which activates during Monday Night Raw. The app features live polls and content during that time.
The app also comes with exclusive videos and content, access to the social media streams for every WWE “Superstar” and “Diva,” as well as news from WWE.com.
It also takes advantage of users’ location to provide access to tickets purchasing for local events, and other WWE shopping. The location feature also lets users follow social conversations from their area.
“Our fans have proven they want to consume WWE content day and night and now, through our new mobile app, they can stay completely connected to the action wherever they are,” said Jason Hoch, SVP Digital Operations for WWE.
In the Google Play Store, the app has an average rating of 4.4 (with 1,418 total ratings at the time of this writing).
Podcast listeners are a relatively small, yet loyal group. While others spend their daily commute or house-cleaning time listening to music, podcast fans listen to people talk, constantly filling their heads with both valuable knowledge and worthless inanities. These fans have always been well-equipped if they use Android phones. The Google Listen app allows users to subscribe to their favorite feeds, and have them update automatically via a data connection or Wi-Fi.
Podcast listeners on iOS, though, have been stuck syncing their phones to iTunes, sorting out their podcasts among the rest of the audio on their device. Either that, or turning to one of the few unofficial podcast listening apps in the App Store. It’s been a shame, really, since iTunes was the platform that allowed podcasting to decisively take off as a medium. Finally, though, rumors began circulating earlier this week that a podcast app would be coming with the launch of iOS 6.
Today Apple surprised everyone by releasing a dedicated Podcast app for iOS. The app is simply called “Podcasts,” and allows users to search and subscribe to thousands of podcasts. Most of the features of the Podcast section of iTunes have made it into the app. Apple will promote “Top Stations” in a variety of categories including comedy, news, and sports. Top charts will be displayed in the Podcasts app, and episodes can be streamed or downloaded for later listening, over data or Wi-Fi. Apple has also thrown some minimal social support into the app, allowing users to Tweet, message, or email podcast episodes. iTunes sync is a feature of the Podcasts app, though in this case it syncs playback of episodes, meaning seamless transition between Apple devices such as iPods and iPads.
An official podcast app from Apple should be worrying to 3rd-party podcast apps such as Stitcher. The functionality of the new Podcasts app looks to encompass everything users were looking for in those 3rd-party solutions, along with built-in iTunes integration. The new app is available for free in iTunes and the Apple App Store. It requires iOS 5.1 or later, and the iTunes syncing feature requires iTunes 10.6.3 or later.
Google announced that it has updated its iOS app, after the app faced a great amount of criticism following its initial launch.
Google had gone without offering an iOS app until just last month. The concept was greeted rather warmly by iPhone and iPad users, but the product not so much. It was full of bugs, but Google did launch an update shortly thereafter.
That didn’t curb all of the criticism, but that’s virtually impossible anyway.
Anyhow, today they’ve announced a new update.
With the new version, Google has added the ability to set custom signatures for mobile messages and vacation responders. These can be accessed through the gear icon at the top of the menu view. They also added improved labels with support for nested labels.
There is new notification sound for iOS 5 users. Google says it makes it easier to distinguish when you’ve received an email.
You can now open up a canvas and scribble messages that will be attached to emails. The feature, also available from Gmail for Mobile, supports different colors, brush sizes, lines, erasers and spray paint.
“It’s perfect for sending a quick sketch that is hard to express in words or adding a fun graphic to make your email more personal,” Google says in a blog post.
The company says it is also continuing to work on other highly requested features like banner notifications, multiple login support and the ability to send as from any account.
Google announced a new Blogger app for iOS, which lets bloggers write new blog posts and publish them from their iPhones or iPod Touches.
“With the Blogger app, you can write a new blog post and publish it immediately or save it as a draft right from your iOS device,” says product manager Chang Kim. “You can also open a blog post you’ve been working on from your computer and continue editing it while you’re on-the-go. Your blog posts are automatically synced across devices, so you’ll always have access to the latest version.”
“Pictures are worth a thousand words, and the Blogger app makes it easy to add photos either by choosing from the gallery or taking a new photo right within the app,” adds Kim. “You can also add labels and location to provide more details about the post.”
According to the App Store, the app will let users:
* Select account/blog if you have more than 1.
* Include pictures from the gallery or by taking a picture directly from the app
* Add labels
* Add location information
* Save as draft or immediately publish
* View list of saved/published posts
The app is available for iOS versions 3.2 and above. The UI is only in English right now, but it supports posts written in all languages.
