AI-powered summaries of webpages are a feature that you will find in many AI-centric tools these days. The next step for some of these tools is to prepare detailed and well-formatted web pages for your search queries. The Arc browser is doing this to some extent through its Arc Search app. Apple is rumored to […]
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A search results page based on generative AI as its ranking mechanism will have wide-reaching consequences for online publishers.
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Opera’s in-browser AI product, called Aria, can now summarize text-based web pages on Android. The AI-powered web page summarizing tool quickly condenses news articles, blog posts or research papers in a short summary that typically fits in one screen.
The new feature, announced Monday, can help users quickly understand a topic and pinpoint the important details. To use it, visit any text-based web page and then tap the three dots in the top right corner of the Opera Android browser and select the “Summarize” option next to the Aria icon. A chat with Aria will then pop up with the requested summary in it.
To access the feature, update to the latest version of Opera for Android and log in to an Opera account, or sign up for a new one.
Aria launched last year and functions like any other AI search companion. The assistant has a chatbot-like interface that answers questions as an alternative to searching the web for answers.
Opera has been building out Aria since its launch and has been expanding its functionality through its AI Feature Drops Program, which enables users to get early access to additional AI features. Most recently, Opera updated Aria with the ability to generate images using Imagen2 by Google. It can also read text answers out loud.
LinkedIn — the social platform that targets the working world — has quietly started testing another way to boost its revenues, this time with a new service for small and medium businesses. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that it is working on a new LinkedIn Premium Company Page subscription, which — for fees that appear to be as steep as $99/month — will include AI to write content and new tools to grow follower counts, among other features to raise the profiles of the company using them.
The move is significant because it underscores how Microsoft-owned LinkedIn continues to diversify its business model — while also trying to make itself more useful overall. LinkedIn has for years been the butt of many a joke about how it can feel like a cesspool of shameless self-promotion, or (cue nervous laughter) creepy when you realise the amount of data it can gather about what you do on there.
But as others have pointed out, LinkedIn has a prime opportunity right now. With so many changes underfoot on other social platforms and search engines — where advertising and other algorithms dictate what users discover, and disinformation runs riot — LinkedIn has been looking to carve out a safer space, a place to have a social profile of record for the professionals and prosumers out there.
LinkedIn quietly started to post information describing its new Premium Company Page six days ago. The posts got almost no notice, but we stumbled on it ourselves, and it seems a marketing consultant did, too. Now, LinkedIn has confirmed the details to TechCrunch.
“We’re always exploring new ways to enhance our customers’ experience and assist them in achieving their business goals. Currently, we’re testing a new offering with small-to-medium business customers, called Premium Company Page, which is designed to help them attract customers, build credibility, and stand out to their audience. We look forward to sharing more soon,” said Suzi Owens, senior director of communications at LinkedIn, in a statement.
Pricing for premium company pages is not immediately disclosed, but it appears admins of pages that are eligible for it can see it. This marketing consultant notes that the fees start at $99.99 per month per Page, reducing to $839.88 per Page for an annual subscription.
This new premium company page is the latest in a growing list of premium offerings that LinkedIn has crafted for organizations on the platform, mirroring the different usage and pricing tiers that it has built out for individuals and recruiters using the platform.
Other business-focused tiers include Premium Career for people on the job hunt, Premium Business for business intelligence, Sales Navigator for sales teams, Recruiter tiers for sourcing and hiring talent and LinkedIn Learning for professional development.
Taken together, Premium services are very big business for the company. In March, the company announced that Premium user subscriptions grew 25% year-on-year to $1.7 billion in 2023. Overall, the company made $15 billion that year, with its recruiting business accounting for $7 billion of that.
The Premium Company Page subscription in some ways will look very familiar, in that it taps into well-known LinkedIn mechanics.
Admins for the pages can review recent visitors — if those visitors have not turned off the privacy setting, that is. (Public service reminder: it’s on by default.) This can be used to subsequently invite those visitors to follow the page, regardless of their degree of connection (that previously would have been impossible to do for casual visitors who are not already connected within one degree of the company). Admins can also create “call to action” buttons with contact or website details displayed prominently at the top of the Page. Testimonials, which LinkedIn has really promoted as a feature on profile pages for individuals, also get a push here: admins can display these prominently at the top of their premium pages.
The AI writing help, meanwhile, becomes one of the latest ways that LinkedIn is weaving more AI assistance into the platform, something it started to introduce last year, tapping Microsoft’s ties to OpenAI.
Last but not least, with LinkedIn big on verification lately, and here too a Page can get a golden badge with a premium subscription.
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