Google Expands AI Overviews to More Regions; Paramount to Cut 15% of Workforce; AltStore Launches on iOS for EU Users

by Aimee Newell Tarín on 19th Aug 2024 in News

On today’s news digest: Google Expands AI Overviews to More Regions; Paramount to Cut 15% of Workforce; AltStore Launches on iOS for EU Users

As most will likely have seen, the AI Overview feature has been added for UK users of Google’s search engine, three months after its initial launch for US users back in May. The feature is now also being rolled out in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan and Mexico. Following its launch, the feature caused quite a stir, with industry members – publishers in particular – wondering how the change would affect them. In its blog post announcing the expansion of the feature, Google maintains that “showing links to supporting web pages directly within AI Overviews is driving higher traffic to publisher sites.” The tech giant also claims that the feature has driven a higher level of engagement from younger users between the ages of 18 to 24. Additionally, Search Labs is allowing users to test a couple of extra functions. Firstly, the ability to save a specific overview for future reference, which can be accessed under the ‘interests’ page. Next, the option to simplify the language used in an overview, which is designed to help users who are being exposed to a new topic and want simpler text to digest, for example.

Panning to the latest for Paramount Global: Skydance Media has identified USD$2bn (£1.55bn) worth of cuts to the media conglomerate. Paramount intends to cut USD$500m (£386m) in costs by the end of this year. The bulk of these cuts will come from staff layoffs (predominantly those working in the marketing and communications teams), which began last week. An elimination of around 2,000 positions is expected, equal to approximately 15% of the workforce. The cuts will be propulsed at full force; CEO Chris McCarthy stated that 90% of these actions would be complete by the end of September. This follows Paramount’s very significant writedown of its cable networks last week, as it concluded that their combined value had dropped by almost USD$6bn (£4.64bn).

Looking at the latest action surrounding the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the AltStore – a third-party app store for EU users – is now available for free on iOS throughout the region. Unlike Apple’s App Store, the AltStore allows anyone to distribute their app by self-publishing. Having been a recipient of Epic Games’ “MegaGrant” monetary award, the AltStore will be able to cover Apple’s Core Technology fee going forward, eliminating the need for users to pay any subscription. Previously, an annual fee of less than two euros was required in order to cover the fee which Apple demanded.