The Top Three

🏆 THE INDUSTRY’S MOST IMPORTANT STORIES TODAY

🥇 GOOGLE CLAIMS SEARCH DRIVES <1% OF YOUTUBE VIEWS

🤨 I’m sorry, what now?! Google says almost no one uses Search to find and watch YouTube videos, as it defends against antitrust claims from the right-leaning video platform Rumble. Rumble alleges that Google uses its monopoly to prioritize YouTube videos over rivals, arguing that once its videos are placed above others in search results, competitors can't compete on Android home screens. more

• Google said Search traffic accounts for less than 1% of total YouTube views, in response.

• This may be the first time the company has disclosed this stat, suggesting that most users find videos directly on YouTube.

• The judge has yet to rule in the case.

🥈 ADOBE LAUNCHES AI VIDEO GENERATOR

Adobe just launched its Sora-rivaling AI video generator, Generate Video, now available to everyone via the Firefly web app. The tool lets you turn text and images into videos. more

• Text-to-Video: lets users generate footage using text description.

• Image-to-Video: lets users add a reference image along with text prompts to create videos, with options for adjusting styles, camera angles, motion, and shooting distances.

• Clips take 90 seconds or more to generate, with a maximum length of 5 seconds.

🥉 SHOPIFY: THE SWASTIKA WAS ACTUALLY FINE WITH US

👋 bYE: Shopify’s takedown of Kanye West’s online store wasn’t about the Nazi T-shirt… it was about fraud risk. In an internal message yesterday morning, Shopify’s general counsel said that the store was taken down due to the risk of fraud, describing the swastika-emblazoned T-shirt as “a stunt” and “not a good faith attempt to make money,” adding that it brought with it “the real risk of fraud,” which led to the store's closure. more

• The shirt was listed for sale early Monday, with Shopify taking it offline about 24 hours later.

• In a public statement, a spokesperson for the company confirmed the takedown, saying the Yeezy store violated company terms due to the merchant’s failure to engage in authentic commerce practices.

Today’s Other News

📰 EVERYTHING ELSE THAT MATTERS

Advertising 📣

• 🏈 Not just a game, but a ratings behemoth: Super Bowl LIX pulled 128 million viewers on Fox, setting records for the biggest Super Bowl audience and the largest single-network telecast in TV history, per Nielsen. more

  • Fox-owned Tubi, which streamed the game for free, saw an average minute audience of 13.5 million, peaking at 15.5 million concurrent streams.

• Google is reminding advertisers about the upcoming brand guidelines changes, now set for next month. more

  • Advertisers must add their business name and logos to the guidelines to control how their brand appears in ads.

  • If not updated by March, top-performing names and logos will be used instead.

• What’s working for Pinterest: The company is using AI to boost ad performance, using both its own models and partners like Microsoft and OpenAI. A new ad product that auto-generates imagery based on viewer interests led to a 55% increase in clicks for Walgreens. more

• Snap wants your ad dollars: The platform is going all in on SMBs, expanding its direct response business with new data partnerships, new ad products, and automation tools. CEO Evan Spiegel said SMBs were the biggest driver of its ad revenue growth in 2024 but kept the breakdown of its $5.3B revenue under wraps. more

Search & GBP 🔍

• The Google Business Profile review count bug is now being fixed. Review counts are rising, and many small business owners and SEOs are reporting improvements. more

• AI images tanking SEO?: There’s chatter in the SEO community that Google Image Search may be down-ranking AI-generated images in favour of non-AI ones. Some users reported a big drop in image traffic in late January despite steady web traffic, leading to speculation about a new quality metric. Google has yet to comment on the matter. more

Social Media 📱

• YouTube is expanding its text-to-speech feature for Shorts, now available on iOS, in addition to Android. Creators can add text, have it narrated, and control the start and end points, with four voice options to choose from. more

  • It’s also updating its profile cards on Studio mobile to match the app’s overall design. The new pop-up format will show a quick user overview within the Studio display, keeping the same functionality.

• Reddit has partnered with Intercontinental Exchange to create data and analytics products for the financial industry. The collaboration will connect trends and discussions on Reddit to market analysis, using insights from posts and comments to create new tools for portfolio optimization, trading, and more. more

Streaming 🎧️ 

• 🎙️ Nobody tell Joe Rogan: YouTube and Spotify have long battled for video podcast dominance, but now they’ve got a new challenger: Netflix. Sources say the streaming giant is exploring video deals with podcasters, eyeing the growing market as YouTube expands its lead in both podcasts and TV. more

Legal ⚖️ 

• 🤖 AI found guilty: Thomson Reuters won the first AI copyright case in the U.S. yesterday against Ross Intelligence, with a judge ruling that the legal AI startup infringed on copyright by reproducing materials from Thomson Reuters‘ legal research firm, Westlaw. This landmark decision could have major consequences for gen-AI companies and copyright laws. more

The Vertical Wikipedia

🔨 MARKETING TOOL OF THE DAY

I’ve been doing too much mindless scrolling through TikTok lately, but this morning I found a new site called WikiTok that turns Wikipedia into an endless scroll, kind of like TikTok but for learning.

• No Ads or Algorithms: Just Wikipedia content without any distractions

• Multi-Language Support: Access articles in 14 different languages.

• Direct Access to Full Articles: Interested in a topic? Click “Read More” to dive into the complete Wikipedia entry.

Might be a cool tool to spark some creative ideas or just learn something new during downtime.

Today’s Trivia Question

🎁 TAP YOUR GUESS AND YOU COULD WIN

Spotted on Social

🤣 THE SOCIAL WEB’S BEST POSTS IN THE LAST 24 HOURS

Steal Our Stack

🛠️ TOOLS WE USE TO PUT THE NEWSLETTER OUT

Google Ads courses: Inside Google Ads: Advanced
Meta ad courses: Foxwell Digital Courses
Media Buyers Slack: Foxwell Founders Community
Lifetime marketing tool deals: Appsumo 
Podcast recording: Riverside
Email newsletter: Beehiiv