Adobe Holiday Online Sales Forecast To Surpass In-Store By 10%
Adobe’s annual holiday season sales numbers revealed an estimate that online sales will rise 13.8% YoY to $107.4 billion and outpace in-store sales by 10% this year. Adobe predicts that, for the first time, mobile visits to retail sites will surpass desktop visits. The report is compiled from an analysis of a trillion visits to 4,500+ retail sites and 55 million product numbers.
Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status hit 300M users, nearly 2X Snapchat
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that both Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status have 300 million active users daily. As Facebook products like Instagram Stories and Facebook Stories have their own augmented reality face filters, they’ve reached a level of parity with Snapchat. Over half of Instagram’s daily active users are on Stories now.
Yext’s Latest Advancements Will Expand Where Business Information is Published
Yext has revealed three major platform advancements to be powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning: Yext for Events, Yext Knowledge Assistant, and WeChat Mini-Programs integration. Created to help businesses engage consumers through voice search and smart assistants, the advancements will enable businesses to manage new data sets and expand where business information is published.
Apple releases iOS 11.1 with shiny new emojis
Apple has released the first feature update for iOS 11, iOS 11.1. Among several new features are dozens of new emojis including wizards, fairies, mermaids, and vampires. There are also several new clothing, animal, and facial expression emojis. For the first time, some are gender neutral. Apple promises 70 new emojis, making iOS compatible with Unicode 10.0.
Google: We Won’t Tell You When the Mobile-First Index Has Fully Rolled Out
According to Gary Illyes, Google won’t announce when the mobile-first index is done rolling out. Plans for a mobile-first search index were first announced by Google last year. Google representatives initially stated the company planned the mobile-first switch for early 2018.
