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Hey, remember how Meta acquired the GIPHY GIF platform in 2020, then didn’t do anything with the app at all, and haven’t really changed or integrated it since?

This is, at least in part, because Acquisition of GIPHY by Meta has been challenged in the UKwhich delayed the full scope of its plans for the GIF platform.

As part of a broader antitrust campaign, the Britain’s competition regulator has sought to force Meta to reverse its $315 million acquisition of GIPHY, fearing the deal will lead to “a substantial lessening of competition” in the UK display ads market.

Which, given that we’re talking about GIPHY, seems like a bit of a stretch – but obviously there’s a case to be answered, as this week a UK court dismissed Meta’s latest appeal against the lawsuit, which puts his acquisition of GIPHY in unstable ground once again.

As reported by the Financial Times:

“the [UK] The Competition Appeal Tribunal on Tuesday unanimously dismissed all but one of Meta’s grounds for appeal, concluding that the Competition and Markets Authority had acted rationally when deciding the last year to sell GIPHY – the largest provider of moving images known as gifs to social media.”

The crux of the case against Meta’s acquisition comes down to the use of GIFs for advertising purposes, which could extend Meta’s hold on the digital advertising market.

GIPHY’s advertising options are quite limited, but it has facilitated brand promotions via GIFs in the past, which under Meta could become a global offering, which could become a bigger part of the larger sphere of digital advertisements. It’s not something that would likely scale with, say, another social media app or similar, but there’s potential for Meta to expand its presence in the advertising market, and that, apparently , is sufficient justification to block the merger from progressing further, based on this latest finding.

Meta will continue to appeal the case, but its options are becoming increasingly limited, which could eventually see it forced to either sell GIPHY or pull the app from the UK market, if it’s a option she would prefer to pursue.

Although exactly how this might work is also complex, as the issue concerns the global acquisition, which would affect all markets, not just the UK. But the UK court cannot make global decisions. Essentially, the legal technicalities, in that sense, are beyond my understanding of international law, but it looks like Meta might have other avenues to pursue, before having to consider going back on the deal entirely.

In some ways, that feels more like an anti-Meta stance than an anti-competition stance — especially when you also consider that Snapchat was allowed to acquire rival GIF platform Gfycat in 2020. The argument goes which GIFs might be a bigger advertising element is debatable, but with Meta turning previous acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram into huge dominating platforms in their respective industries, there is a level of concern on any platform that Meta buys, and how that could then extend its already significant dominance in the market.

Digital advertising accounts for 66% of total ad spend in the UK, with Meta and Google gobbling up the majority of those ad dollars. Given this, you can understand why UK regulators are reluctant to cede more power in this regard to US tech giants. And while GIPHY may never be a big chunk of that overall ad pie, it does, in some ways, seem like a line in a sand moment for the local competition.

Which basically means that GIPHY’s full Meta integration is still pending, and we have no real way of knowing what he’s planning, or what he might do next with the app until the legal challenge is resolved.

This means there are no new GIF tools in your favorite social media apps – and by the time this is all settled, no one may care about GIFs anyway, because we’ll all be flying in the metaverse, with cartoonish avatars becoming a more popular option for expression.

Perhaps then Meta should just roll back and save some cash, though we also don’t know its full plans for the acquisition, or the associated costs should it eventually roll back.

We now await the next update of the legal process.

With the aim of making our lives easier, Google presents a new way of searching the web through a combination of text and images.

Sometimes it can be difficult to express yourself on Google, right? And sometimes, words are not enough. That is why Google goes one step further in our way of investigating. The company has just announced the Multi-Browser feature.

This means that from now on, instead of typing in the search box, you can combine text and images to show the Google engine exactly what you’re looking for.

How does Multisearch work?

For example, if you are making a specific dress but with different colors, prices or sizes, you can now use a screenshot or photo of this dress directly from your gallery and include some additional text. Much easier, right?

And you can also take pictures of things you come across while walking down the street and ask Google to search for more information about them. A wall painting, a flower, a dress: anything that catches your eye.

And if you’re still not sure how wonderful this new search feature is, Google dug a little deeper to surprise you: You can send an image of a table, for example, and ask Google to find the perfect chair suggestions for it. .

Yes, you read that right: you will be able to get design advice from a distance!

What can you expect, as a marketer, from this new search feature?

For now, Multisearch is only available as a beta feature in the US, with the best results for shopping searches. But this is something we can expect to hear more often from now on.

Followed by the director of Google search, Lou Wang, “Multisearch is in the way we ask questions about the things we are looking at and is an important part of how Google is the future of research.”

And yes Google sees Multisearch as the future of research, so do we. But as this feature is in beta testing, at this early stage, we can’t gauge the impact of this new search feature on our digital and SEO strategy, anyway the Rock Content team is the place to put it hands on! But for sure, we will have many exploration opportunities in the future!

And how can you be prepared?

We will have a lot to open Multisearch when the legal function is worldwide. While we don’t hear any more from Google on this, we can get some ideas and start working on our mindset.

One of them is obviously: SEO tactics have historically focused on keywords. We’re talking about finding the way people write questions and produce content to answer them. Of course, things have changed.

A few years ago, we started talking a lot about voice searches on Google, for example. The form that people have is different from the wording. Google has been searching for images for a long time.

But now it looks much better. You’re not just doing a reverse search to find the original source of a photo, for example. You’re gathering images, keywords, and (why not?) voice searches. It is a much more natural form of man-machine relationship.

So you know that some of the old SEO success tactics don’t work anymore.

Doing a deeper analysis, we can see some customer centricity in this approach. At the end of the day, Google wants users to find exactly what they’re looking for, without tricky questions or links. Well, the main objective of this improvement is to guarantee the most natural, assertive and intuitive user experience.

And at the moment I think this is the best advice that Google leaves us. Regardless of how a digital strategy is built, it should have it in mind to deliver real value to all customers. With that in mind, Multisearch will be an advantage in your strategy!