A Final Goodbye from Universal Analytics

• In case you missed the 824 emails they’ve sent about this, Google Universal Analytics will cease to exist in all forms on July 1, 2024.
• You’ve probably dealt with this already, but if you haven’t, there are still a few days left.
• This change affects UA tracking codes, GTM integrations, any use of the API in other Google or 3rd-party products, advertising integrations. Everything.
• If you haven’t migrated to GA4 properties, here’s a simple guide.
• You can download all the data you want for historical purposes, but the export(s) must be completed July 1, 2024.
• If you are a BigQuery user and intend to export data for use in GA360, you should do it now.
• This Google Support article gives all the details about all the things.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI Raises the Bar for Intelligence and Speed

• Anthropic has launched Claude 3.5 Sonnet, their latest AI model, that excels in reasoning, knowledge, and coding, with improved understanding of nuance, humor, and complex instructions.
• It also offers state-of-the-art vision capabilities, and memory for more personalized user experiences (like those already available in OpenAI models).
• Claude has become my favorite AI tool for content ideation and generation. Have you tried it yet?
• Learn more about the latest release and give it a spin.

Google Dials Back AI Search Overviews Following Poor Feedback

• Google has reduced the frequency of showing AI Overviews, likely due to criticism about incorrect and misleading answers.
• AI Overviews now appear for about 7.6% of searches, down from around 64% previously.
• Reddit is no longer among the top 10 most cited domains in AI Overviews.
• The top 5 most referenced domains are now more reliable offerings, including runnersworld.com, healthline.com, linkedin.com, runrepeat.com, and en.wikipedia.org.
• When AI Overviews do appear, they link to at least one domain also in the top 10 organic results.
• The majority of Ads still appear with AI Overviews (almost 90% of the time).
• AI Overviews appear most often for Relationships, Food and Beverage, and Technology queries.
• For me, AI Overviews are still an obstacle to “real” search results and I usually scroll right by them. How about you?
• SearchEngineLand has all the numbers in their recent article.

Worth a Look

• Polyfill.io, a widely used JavaScript service, is reportedly now compromised and spreading malware to over 100,000 websites. You should immediately remove any polyfill.io code to protect your sites and users.
• CSS Media Queries are now a lot simpler! Why hasn’t it always been like this? See examples and compatibility here.
• Shocker! Not everyone who claims to be an expert actually is. Learn some helpful ways to differentiate between experts and imitators.