Happy birthday Google Chrome: The updates that are about to affect digital marketing

Google Chrome celebrated their 10th birthday on 2 September 2018 – and, boy, were we spoilt. In honour of their birthday, Chrome released a series of updates on 5 September 2018 in Google Chrome’s version 69. This version includes a sleek new look and updates that are about to change the way digital marketers, SEO analysts and website developers operate with this browser. 

Marketing companies in Cape Town and around the world are brainstorming over the latest updates and finding ways to make it work for them. Want to know what updates we’re talking about? Just read a little bit further. 

A digital facelift 

First, we’ll look at the aesthetics because it’s the first thing you’ll notice when you open Chrome. The new user interface design stems from Google’s Material Design 2 guidelines. Overall, you’re looking at a modern and sleek browser design. But more specifically, you’re looking at: 

• A change in colour palette (is your tabs bar looking a little different?). 
• Rounded corners everywhere (again, turn to your tabs and you’ll understand).
• New icons to discover (open a new tab right now and take a look at your frequently visited shortcuts). 
• While you’re on your default homepage, why not try to customise it with a background image of your choosing? 
• And subtle animation additions to tie all the new UI updates together.

The Omnibox Smart Answers

Version 69 welcomes the Omnibox Smart Answers that will surely make SEO marketing and ranking on Google a more competitive industry (if that is even possible). The Omnibox doesn’t simply autofill your search sentence before you’ve finished typing out what you’re searching for. It now, in some cases, answers your questions in the drop-down, autocomplete, search bar results without you needing to press enter or scour sites to find the answer you’re looking for. 

So, if you’re looking for the latest scores from a sports game, searching for something about a public figure, want to know what the weather currently is, or even how long ago the tyrannosaurus rex lived – Omnibox Smart Answers has your interests covered. Instant answers, no new tabs required and pertinent results only. 

For the developers

As a digital agency, we have a team of developers who are always optimising the web development sector for our clients. And Chrome version 69 has a few updates that will affect the way web developers in digital agencies all over the world, well, develop. Most of the updates will improve the user experience of Chrome on mobile devices, which everyone knows is a popular marketing channel. 

• CSS scroll snap: Contributing to the sleek design, the CSS scroll snap update on version 69 allows for smooth and controlled scroll experiences. As a developer, you can optimise your digital carousel to tell the browser when to align after each scrolling action to focus on specific points. 
• Display cutouts (notches): Before Chrome’s birthday, there was a safeguard feature from display cutouts that prevented developers from utilising the extra margin area on a mobile browser for content. With display cutouts, it’s now possible to access that entire space, allowing greater website design for mobiles. 

Other updates concerning developers include conic gradients, web locks API, a new toggle attribute and more.

Final thoughts 

To the average human eye, Google Chrome is prettier and more efficient. To digital marketers, it’s a new toy that has the potential to change the way SEO and development departments approach marketing campaigns and website optimisation. 

We, at Rogerwilco, are all about optimising and you can trust that we will use these updates to our advantage as a leading digital agency in South Africa.