Other Google news is less positive. The company has not-very-subtly registered its opposition to a Canadian law requiring that it pay news outlets for using their materials by running a “test” that blocks some users’ access to Canadian news sites. Meta tried something similar in Australia last year with predictably poor results.
Not all AI news relates to ChatGPT and its generative AI cousins. Google Performance Max has been using AI for years to optimize search ad placement, claiming an 18% higher conversion rate than manual placements. They recently added campaign-level brand exclusions, expanded comparative performance testing, new video editing tools, and enhanced reporting.
While we’re beating up on Google, let’s mention this Mozilla study that found almost 80% of 40 popular Google Play Store apps showed a discrepancy between their Google Data Safety Form and actual privacy policy. The differences were serious in 40% of the apps tested. The study also criticizes Google policies including reliance on self-reporting by app developers and loopholes such as failing to require reports of sharing data with “service providers”.
Salesforce kicked off its big Connections conference yesterday, and if you’re surprised the focus was on generative AI, you haven’t been paying attention. Still, the focus this time was on marketing applications that draw on Salesforce CDP data, so it’s right up our alley. They also announced direct access to Google BigQuery data, ticking the “zero-copy” box as well.