Weekly Roundup - 07/17

∞ A new test feature in Google's Chrome iOS browser enables users tapping on the search bar to discover and view content made available to them in their immediate physical vicinity. These digital touchpoints - product videos, coupons, in-store promotions, etc. - are enabled through Bluetooth beacons broadcasting website URLs. (1/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ The feature is a significant improvement over earlier implementations using Apple's iBeacon protocol which required users to download separate apps for each bricks-and-mortar retailer to access content. (2/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ The innovation effectively combines the intuitiveness and ubiquity of a browser search bar to return results based on physical proximity instead of search terms. (If users ignore the "physical web" results and proceed to type in search keywords, the search bar reverts to its original functionality.) (3/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ Incorporating discovery of the Physical Web inside a search bar and giving premium ranking to "nearby" content potentially allows bricks-and-mortar stores to recapture customers' online attention from drifting towards competition whilst they are physically in their store. (4/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ Haptic technology is coming to advertising soon, bringing with it the ability to stimulate texture on digital touchscreens by modulating electric fields or by using ultra-sonic vibrations. (1/1)
[JWT Intelligence]

∞ Currently, texture can be stimulated using the vibration function on a standard Android phone - allowing existing media to be "rescored" with haptic content and experienced on existing mobile devices. (2/2)
[JWT Intelligence]

∞ Facebook advertisers can now opt to pay only for videos played with the sound turned on. (1/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ Not coincidentally, Facebook is also switching the default sound of autoplaying videos in its newsfeed from mute to on. Users have the option of overriding this via settings. (2/4)
[The Verge]

∞ Facebook is also offering advertisers the option to buy completed video views - paying only if a video has been viewed till the end. (3/4)
[Advertising Age]

∞ The flurry of developments are a move by Facebook to reframe its consumption environment (more akin to Youtube and Snapchat) and pivot to becoming a video-first platform. (4/4)
[The Verge]