New Report Shows Google Seems to Favor User Generated Content, With Reddit Rising in Search Visibility

2024 was a year where SEO experts were trying to keep up with website ranking strategies on Google. According to a new IndexWatch report by SISTRIX, 2024 was a year of user generated content (UGC), large e-commerce brands and AI tools. Reddit also saw a big growth in its search visibility, often being seen in top rankings on Google search and this raises questions about Google’s practices. The report highlights that Reddit almost tripled its visibility in Google’s US search results for a number of keywords, niche discussions and product reviews.

Reddits’s website saw a 190.9% increase in its search visibility growth, followed by Instagram’s growth mostly because of its video and visual content. YouTube was also one of the top websites in search visibility because of its video SEO and Spotify gained search visibility because of music-related searches, followed by Wikipedia.

According to Google’s policies, websites should not publish content outside of their establishment tropical authority. It is because of scaled content and site reputation so the sites cannot rank based on unrelated keywords. But Reddit’s rankings seem opposite to the rules even though it contains many different keywords and doesn't operate only under one area of expertise. This makes the SEO community and other people think about why Reddit gets ranked for everything on Google. It is also worth mentioning here that Reddit has a deal with Google for broader search and it makes us think if Google is being fair in its ranking system or not.

ck12.org (+602.59%) was the fastest growing site on Google in 2024, followed by VirginAtlantic.com (+509.74%), Quillbot.com (+490.70%), Hardrock.com (+436.63%) and TheKitchn.com (+300.40%). Most of the fastest growing sites on Google used programmatic SEO strategies to grow in rankings. The report shows that user-generated content (UGC) like the ones on Reddit, Stack, Quora, GitHub and Exchange saw a breakthrough in 2024. Many HubPages with topics like pet advice, jokes and music also grew in rankings on Google search results. Overall, it seems like Google favors UGC even if it contains a variety of keywords and content. E-commerce sites also gained transactions after a few years of declining as many retailers focused on keyword targeting and SEO-friendly updates.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Ads on Threads: Game-Changer or Deal-Breaker for Users?

Meta’s Threads has begun testing ads for several brands in America and Japan. The news was confirmed by Adam Mosseri who shared more on the matter including how the firm hopes to listen more often to feedback before choosing to run trials in different global markets.

Mosserri said the company is well aware of the various kinds of feedback that will come in the app’s direction after this experiment. However, the goal is to see which posts on Threads users find the most interesting and relevant.

The experiment is under close monitoring before plans to scale it down broadly are done. The goal is to add ads to Threads where they’re as intriguing as organic material. Tech giant Meta also posted about the arrival of ads on Threads.

The company says all such posts will feature a sponsored label when appearing through the feed. Any early test will feature picture ads. It also shared more about how more people will get controls for ad topics and how they will be allowed to report ads.

Users come to the app to get a more personalized experience. This assists them in helping find companies and content they adore. Remember, ads are a quintessential part of getting this into action. Some users might end up seeing brands they adored but had no idea about. Thanks to ads, they might be following them, Meta explained.

The company launched Threads in 2023 and shared how the goal was more related to user growth having 275 million MAU. By December last year, the figure for active users hit 100 million.

After the launch of Threads, Mark Zuckerberg shared with investors how the main focus at this moment in time is user retention. There are plenty of positive indicators for great engagement on the app so the company wants to make the most of this through ads.

Last year in April, Threads boss Adam Mosseri confirmed that adding ads to the platform was certainly in the pipeline. Shortly after that, social media expert Alessandro Paluzzi shared a code he found linked to ads development on the app. However, Meta denied any immediate plans for the rollout. Therefore, it seems like that day has come now.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Read next: This AI Chatbot GhostGPT Is Helping Hackers Steal More Than Ever Before!
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

This AI Chatbot GhostGPT Is Helping Hackers Steal More Than Ever Before!

According to researchers from Abnormal Security, many cybercriminals are going around selling a malicious generative AI chatbot which helps in malicious activities like phishing emails and Malwa creation. The AI chatbot named as GhostGPT is being sold on Telegram. The researchers say that GhostGPT uses jailbroken versions of open-source large language models like ChatGPT while using a wrapper to connect with them which helps them ensure that all responses for customers are uncensored.

This new malicious model is just like WormGPT AI chatbot which was going around in 2023 and used to help cybercriminals in doing business email compromise (BEC) attacks. There are also other variants of this malicious chatbot like EscapeGPT and WolfGPT. Researchers from Abnormal Security say that GhostGPT has been receiving good attention which shows that cybercriminals are being interested in it because it will help them for many malicious activities in the name of AI tools.

GhostGPT can even be used by cybercriminals who don't have much expertise to do successful attacks as it is easily accessible and can be bought on Telegram. It is available as a bot on Telegram which suggests that there is no need to jailbreak ChatGPT. GhostGPT also doesn't record any activities which makes criminals carry out a bunch of illegal activities without anyone having a clue. Cybercriminals can use GhostGPT for various activities like writing convincing emails for phishing, coding, BEC scams and malware creation. Researchers tested GhostGPT by asking it to create a DocuSign phishing email and it produced it quickly with a convincing template. It shows that this malicious AI chatbot is really efficient and gives responses fast.

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• AI Models Struggle with Historical Accuracy, GPT-4 Turbo Only Scores 46%
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

AI Models Struggle with Historical Accuracy, GPT-4 Turbo Only Scores 46%

According to a new study, many AI models don't answer accurately about world history which is a very concerning matter. The researchers of the study developed some answer questions using benchmarks from Seshat Global History Databank and found that GPT-4 Turbo was able to score 46% in a test, which is better than guessing but not expert-level. The team of researchers transformed the data from the databank into multiple choice questions about different historical features.

Seven different AI models like LLama, GPT-3.5, Gemini and GPT-Turbo were tested and they were asked to act like expert historians so that their strengths and weaknesses can be evaluated and suggestions about improvements can be made. The researchers also made a scale for accuracy of answers, with 25% score given to random guessed answers and 100% score given to perfectly accurate answers. The AI models were also evaluated on the basis of answers with evidence and answers after drawing random conclusions.

GPT-Turbo was the best performing model with a score of 43.8% but it couldn't answer accurately on an expert level. In a two-choice test where the answer was either ‘present’ or ‘absent’, GPT-Turbo scored 63.2% which indicates that it can handle basic factual questions but is unable to answer complex historical questions. The study also found AI models’ performances based on different regions, time period and time of historical data. AI models performed better in questions about earlier historical periods like before 3000 BCE but struggled in questions about modern data because of complexities in societies. AI models also showed better performances in answering questions about Americans while they showed poor performances in answering questions about Oceania and Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are some limitations in the study too like the Seshat Databank being in English and only biased towards well documented societies as well as a limited set of AI models. This study shows that AI still has a long way to go in answering historical data and more unbiased and inclusive training data is needed for AI to talk about global history more accurately.

Image: DIW-Aigen

Source: NeurIPS

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

OpenAI Gives Sneak Peek Into Its First AI Agent ‘Operator’ With Launch Due Soon

OpenAI promised that 2025 would be a major year for AI agents and it seems like the company is staying true to that.

In case you’re still wondering, these are tools that can conduct tasks automatically. We mean they can even perform human-like actions on their own when instructed to do so. OpenAI shared a sneak peek at what many users can expect from its Operator agent as it hopes for a launch in the US soon.

The general purpose agent takes control of web browsers and conducts certain tastes independently. It would be up for grabs to those paying $200 a month for Pro subscriptions first which does make sense. However, the agent will soon be a part of the Plus, Enterprise, and Team tiers.

Altman shared how he plans on a global launch as well but a launch in the EU might take some time, thanks to the greater laws related to the tech world involved. Those wanting a little extra information can head on over to operator.chatgpt.com for the research preview. With time, the AI agent would soon become part of its host of clients on ChatGPT.

So far, tasks that can be performed with ease by the Operator include making travel bookings, reservations at restaurants, and carrying out online shopping tasks. There’s a list of categories that users can select from such as dining, shopping, travel, and delivery. All of these enable various types of automation.

When the Operator is activated, a tiny window pops up that displays dedicated web browsers that agents use for fulfilling tasks, alongside explanations for certain actions that they would be performing. Users could still take full command of their screen if and when the Operator is in action. This is related to the fact that the Operator has a separate dedicated browser.

As per OpenAI, the tool is powered using CUA that merges visual services with the firm’s GPT-4o model. This also entails reasoning abilities in more advanced systems. The agent can interact more with websites which means it does not need to make use of APIs facing developers to perform tasks.

The CUA makes use of various navigation menus, buttons, and options for filling forms on pages like we do in the regular world. Soon, the company also hopes to collaborate with other leading firms such as Instacart, StubHub, Uber, and Priceline to make way for seamless partnerships that respect their service agreements.

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by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

AI-Driven Changes Will Reshape Mobile Engagement, Social Media Budgets, and Consumer Data Collection by 2027

According to Gartner Inc. mobile usage is expected to drop 25% by 2027 due to AI assistants. Many users are going to use AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence and Meta AI to perform a lot of functions that they were doing on many apps previously. In the future, many app companies are also going to get partnered to create shared apps which will help apps reach more users and will help split the cost for developing and maintaining apps.

Emily Weiss from Gartner says that CMOs should start planning the future with less mobile app usage, and brands with low app engagement are going to be the ones most affected by it. Brands that depend on apps can face challenges if users start engaging more with AI assistants for services. If an app is losing users, it means losing first-party data and the ability of brands to reach out to people through their mobile notifications.

Gartner’s 2024 CMO Spend Survey finds that a lot of website traffic is driven by search, followed by direct visits. This means that any change in algorithm can also result in search traffic which will negatively impact businesses. If CMOs want to adapt to this change, they will have to hire individuals with GenAI expertise to monitor how AI-driven changes are affecting content performance in search algorithms. It is also becoming important to invest in upskilling teams to create and optimize content that can help in rankings with evolving search technologies because by 2026, more than one third of web content will be created for Gen-AI powered search (this means content will be optimized for AI algorithms that understand user intent, instead of optimizing it for regular search engines results like Google or Bing).

By 2028, 30% of the social media budget of marketers will be shifted on advertising and partnerships on subscription based platforms. Users will be moving away from traditional social media to platforms like Discord and Patreon because they offer more self-selected audiences and are also more engaging which makes them attractive for brands to advertise. It is also predicted that 85% of the consumer data is going to be collected through automated interactions or AI driven agents by 2027 and brands will rely on them for future customer interactions. Marketers will have to make strategies about their usage and will have to know when to trust those AI agents in roles which require interacting with customers.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Study Links Short-Form Video Consumption to Poor Academic Performance in Children

According to new study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, children who watch a lot of short-form videos like TikTok show signs of poor academic performance as they have reduced attention spans. The study shows that digital media is negatively influencing young kids. As the study was based in China where academic performances are highly important, the trend of young kids getting addicted to short-form videos is really alarming. Influence of parental media use and attention of students also affect academic performances of children a lot.

For the study, researchers gathered 1,052 elementary students from Shenzhen through their academic records and questionnaires. The students were asked to provide information about their short-form video watching habits and their parents were asked to provide information about their own media usage habits as well as their perspective of screen time of their children. The academic performance of children was assessed through their exam scores and the researchers also designed a test to measure stability, breadth, shifting and allocation habits of attention in those children.

The results of the study proved that there is a negative relationship between children watching short-form videos for a long time and their academic performance. As children were using a lot of time watching short-form videos, there was a decrease in their attention span and they were finding it difficult to focus on tasks related to their academics. This shows that there's a relationship between screen time and cognitive function and it can highly affect our attention and ability to perform various tasks.

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The study also found that there is an influence of parental role, as parents who watch short-form videos for a long time showed a negative relationship between their children’s attention and screen time. Children tend to copy what their parents do, but reduced opportunities for parent-child interactions because of high screen time of parents or children can also impact children’s focus. Children with less attention span due to watching short-form videos also had parents with more screen time, while children who showed moderate attention span had parents with less screen time.

These findings show that there is an influence of the family environment on children’s social media habits and parents’ behavior can shape children's experience with digital media. More studies need to be done to find out more behavioral implications between attention and media usage. It should also be done among various other cultures and regions so we can find out if that's the case in other parts of the world too.

Image: DIW-Aigen

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World