United.b

Google Announces Free Listings in Google Shopping

Google announced that product listings in its Google Shopping tab will become free, beginning in the U.S. and rolling out to other markets by the end of the year. The change applies to the Shopping tab (not to product placements in the main search results, which remain paid) and will coexist with paid ads above organic listings. Industry sources and marketing experts quoted by OMR say the move is partly a merchant-onboarding play to get smaller/local retailers to register in Merchant Center, and may have limited immediate impact because the Shopping tab drives a small share of total Shopping traffic (estimated 5–10%). Observers also link the step to Google’s broader strategy to compete with Amazon and note uncertainty about the future of Shopping Actions / Buy on Google listings.

Unmetric Launches SatisfactionMetrics to Analyze Customer Replies

Unmetric, a US-based social analytics firm, released a new tool named SatisfactionMetrics to assess how brands respond to customers on Twitter and Facebook. The tool analyzes brand replies and splits them into five areas: apologies; requests for customers to send a message; requests to call a specific phone number; requests to email a specific address; and directing customers to a particular link. While Unmetric does not claim which behaviors reliably increase customer satisfaction, the data are intended to help brands improve their customer-service approaches and showcase best practices. A feature called the Average Reply Time Tracker lets users benchmark whether their responsiveness aligns with industry norms across Facebook and Twitter. Techcrunch provides examples, noting that airlines show varying apology shares (e.g., a high rate for SouthWest vs United) and that Subway and CitiBank are among SatisfactionMetrics customers.