Google Rel=Agent Replaces Authorship: Maybe Google Testing SEOs

Sep 12, 2014 - 8:06 am 14 — by

Some savvy webmasters were inspecting the HTML markup behind the last Google Webmaster Blog post and noticed the markup used on the posted by John Mueller hyperlink had a bit of extra code for rel=agent. Here is a screen shot of the code:

Google Rel-Agent

Paul Shaprio asked about it on Twitter after noticing it, saying "Weird, probably insignificant observation... JohnMu is tagged with ?rel=agent." Indeed.

Often Googlers, especially on the webmaster blog, add markup to see if we are looking. It is Google humor, that is how Googlers have fun.

John replied:

Yea right, a typo. :)

As you know, Google has destroyed authorship so it would have said rel=author but John changed it to rel=agent to mess with us.

Love this stuff.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Update: Now John changed it to google.com/+johnmueller?rel=AUTHOR

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Updates

Google Search Ranking Volatility Gets Heated October 24th

Oct 25, 2026 - 10:07 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 23, 2026

Oct 23, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Chatter, PHP Exploit, AI SEO Worthwhile, Google Local, Google Ads, ChatGPT Ads & More

Oct 23, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google

Google AI Overview Citation Cards With AI-Generated Summary Snippets

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

JPEG XL Image Format Not Supported By Google Images & Google Discover

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Maps

Google Business Profiles Tests New Advanced Performance Reports

Oct 23, 2026 - 7:31 am
Previous Story: Google: Penguin 3.0 Will Most Likely Launch In 2014