10 Second Takeaway: A former employees says that Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel made derogatory comments about people in Spain and India, Also Google and Burger King got into a predator-prey game that BK wins. And we have a fun look back at what popular websites looked like years ago.

Spotlight on Burger King Ad Device Activations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_O54le4__I

These ads won’t activate Google Home any more so feel free to watch.

Great social media and device marketing is coming out of the fast food world. A Burger King ad took its turn this week with a spot that activated Google Home devices.

Consumers began changing the ingredient list on the Wikipedia page about the Whopper so that Google read that the sandwich contained cyanide and children. Google stopped the campaign from working entirely, but Burger King immediately released a second spot with a changed voice and had more queued up. 

Read more: Advertising Age, The Next Web, AdWeek

Our Take:  The campaign was benign, clever, and a good story. We believe that Burger King wanted publicity not sales.

The best argument against the campaign came from George’s youngest son who said that the stunt added a search for the Whopper to people’s search histories and that could change their search results. And he’s right although the effect would be minor and temporary unless you often search for fast food. George has been insufferably happy that his children can describe SEO effects. 

Spotlight on Snapchat & Local Marketing

Snap Inc CEO Evan Spiegel is a young self-made billionaire with a very big spotlight caused by the company’s IPO. That spotlight includes something all business leaders can understand–a former employee filing suit. 

The news that rocked the online world this week was the revelation that Mr. Spiegel allegedly badmouthed Spain and India as markets and according to a newly public court filing said, “This app is only for rich people. I don’t want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain.” 

Snap denies that the comment was made, and we would be remiss if we didn’t add that anyone can be accused of saying anything, but we also know that Snap is receiving a lot of consumer anger in India over the allegations.

Snapchat is also the latest Internet company promising to link online activity at their site to retail activity at your location. The folks at Marketing Land did a fantastic job listing all the caveats. The biggest is that Snap-to-Store only works if the user interacts with Snapchat in your store. There are others, and they appear to be more restrictive than other advertising companies.

Read More: The Snapchat complaint unredacted,  Daily Beast, Marketing Land

Our Take: This is only a contested allegation, but it came at a bad time for Snap which will announce earnings on May 10 for the first time since its IPO. An underwhelming review in the trade press stings. A comment insulting 18% of the world’s population could be catastrophic if it is proven or even corroborated.

Digital Citizen

Journey Back in Time to Your Favorite Websites

This look at NASA’s website from 1999 is one of the delightful comparisons put together by Leszek Zawadzki, a marketer based in Poland.

Lesek used Amazon’s Way Back Machine to put together pages from websites over the years to show changes in user experience and design.

You can view all the pages at his article in Startup Grind.

Learn why the world’s biggest brands are canceling ads on the world’s biggest video platform.

10 Second Takeaway: Google and Facebook are growing their respective market share leads in advertising. There are many places to advertise online, but Google and Facebook are projected to capture a combined 78% of search and 52% of display (image) online advertising in the U.S. this year. And we have news about Amazon, YouTube, and search engines that you should know this week.

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Spotlight on Search Quality & “Inaccurate Information”

Google won’t use the catchphrase “fake news” but is turning its army of 10,000 quality review checkers over to tackle factually inaccurate data. These Google contractors have been checking pages for years and comply with the instructions contained in a very long manual. We’ve read it, and it’s not exciting, but it’s very well done.

The checkers now can flag inaccurate facts from sites denying the Holocaust as well as other offensive topics such as white supremacy, Islamaphobia, and false facts published by sites as true. The Google checkers, called contractors, can flag the page as “Upsetting-Offensive”. People searching for that specific data will be available to find it, but Google will indicate that the factual nature of the claims are in question, using a flag in the displayed results.

The flags will be visible on search results pages, which is important because the average search session lasts under one minute. Visual cues make the most impact in short periods of time. Also, only 15% of people use a search engine every day. This and other exhaustive data covering millions of searchers is from a new Moz.com report. Consider your own search behavior. Do you visit Google or Bing every day? We link to the report below.

Our Take: This is a smart move by Google. They won’t get rid of all the misinformation out there, but the most egregious examples, especially those at the top of search results, will be flagged and perhaps diminished. Think of it as the incontrovertible fact check. You may not experience the sky as blue if you’re visually impaired, but a website writing that the sky’s color is normally magenta will be flagged.

Read more: Google at ABC News, Search Engine Land, Moz.com search study

Spotlight on Shopping Online

Are you ready to shop for your next outfit with a style consultant providing feedback in about a minute? 

Amazon is preparing to roll out OUTFIT COMPARE, a new feature allows you to upload a picture, then see yourself in multiple outfits. It also offers an Amazon stylist to tell you which looks best.

According to tech blog TechCrunch, which broke the news, Outfit Compare is being tested on limited versions of Amazon’s app for iPhone and is only available for Amazon Prime members. 

Our Take: Amazon continues to push limits with its ever-growing list of Prime benefits. The hodgepodge of offers, including the 2 day or faster free shipping, is designed to keep a steady stream of consumers renewing the yearly $100 membership. A review of Amazon’s financials by Morgan Stanley, as reported by Business Insider, put the number of Prime users worldwide at 65 million at the end of 2016. And they pay an average of $88 per user in membership fees

Read more: TechCrunch

Spotlight on YouTube

It’s legendary. Every minute 300 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. More than half of all people in the United States have watched a video there in the last year. More than 80% of teenagers and 90% of millenials watch YouTube. And about 10% of U.S. businesses upload video there.

We talked with one business owner this week who gives away his content on YouTube because the real value comes in signing up local customers.

YouTube is also eliminating its Annotations Editor on May 2. Those are the captions and balloons you see on many videos. After May 2nd, uploaders will only be able to delete them. Video editors can still edit in plenty of captions and artwork, but YouTube says that most users prefer the full screen Cards and the End Screen cards that have gained popularity in recent years. 

Image of Google logo courtesy Google. Image of couple shopping online courtesy Hwellrich, Image of YouTube logo courtesy YouTube