A New meta tag and Walmart is making big moves into the Metaverse

A New meta tag and Walmart is making big moves into the Metaverse 

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Last Friday, January 21st, 2022, Google Search Central released a new tag.

This tag called indexifembedded, you can tell Google you’d still like your content indexed when it’s embedded through iframes and similar HTML tags in other pages, even when the content page has the noindex tag.There are a few use cases which Malcom Slade over at Creative Race outlined in their blog post. I’ll give a few here and a link to the full blog:

1- Embedding sharable content

2 – Embedding comments – like Disqus where it’s an iframe and the comments are not indexed

3 – Embedding video where you want the video to be indexed on the page

4 – Reviews from 3rd party embeds

5 – They asked for other ideas. One that we’re talking about is a widget that we’ve had around for a while that other companies embed and they can display specific content. Think being able to embed stock tickers. Now, with each of these being indexed, and having links coming back to us, this could really change our link profile.

Overall I like the idea that we can have more control of our content in the wild, but also to allow others to have that content indexed.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/01/robots-meta-tag-indexifembedded

And it’s been a week or two since I mentioned the metaverse, but it looks like Walmart is the next big name to file patents associated with the metaverse.

One trademark application was for “Financial services, namely, providing a digital currency and a digital token of value for use by members of an online community via a global computer network.” In another filing they mention an on-line retail store featuring virtual merchandise.

If you remember I mentioned other big names like Nike and Disney with similar type filings, but also Under Armor, Urban Outfitters, Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch have also filed similar trademarks with intent on virtualization of retail stores.

Right now, Meta (the King formerly known as Facebook) seems to be pushing both the software and the hardware to the masses. With their Oculus headsets and requirements for a Facebook account, we’re seeing virtual connections that are coming right from existing web 2.0.

So Meta has Oculus, Microsoft has HaloLens, Apple is rumored to be working on hardware, and Google just ramped up their AR hardware with plans to ship in the next 2 years. Remember Google glass came out in 2012, so they have a lot of previous hardware experience in this field, and I know they don’t want to lose out to Meta in the coming MetaVerse wars.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/16/walmart-is-quietly-preparing-to-enter-the-metaverse.html

My personal belief is we are going to see a huge transformation in the next 2-4 years with how we work and interact in business. Right now we are seeing that you don’t necessarily have to be in an office together, though there are some advantages to having access to people right away. Middle and upper management like to have a visual that people are focusing on their work, whether you agree with that or not, it’s something that may never go away.

I remember a discussion in a management class about a factory that brought in a consultant to increase productivity. They tried several different things on the floor, from changing music to lighting, to changing break times. What they found was that those always seemed to work, when the executive team came out to observe. Productivity always increases. The consultant concluded that the environment wasn’t the contributing factor, it was the involvement of the executive team and their presence. 

I’m not saying you can’t be productive without oversight, but not everyone is self-motivated and can keep from being distracted.

I envision the metaverse to be a somewhat happy medium, where you can be anywhere, but still be connected to the company network, see your coworkers sitting just a few feet away from you. Need to ask someone a question, a virtual “poke” (remember those from facebook) and it gives the users headset a little vibration to alert them that you are stopping by to chat.

Virtual screens, and completely integrated meeting rooms that you don’t have to worry about booking.

This is really the future of where things will go, it’s a great equalizer in that you can be anywhere and look any way, and everyone can still feel like they are part of something.

So how are you planning on the metaverse and the potential for your company to make moves? Do you sell products that could be virtualized or “tried on” virtually to help with the sale? I would think enterprise sales would love this, really immerse your potential customers into the product to give them a real experience.