I am telling you, my Google and SEO world is literally upside down right now. So yesterday, at Search Engine Land, I reported how Google had a bug where they showed recent searches pop up automatically on the Google home page under the search box. It was a bug, Google fixed it, but that is not the problem with my Google world.
One of the first people to notice and complain about it publicly was Matt Cutts. Yes, the Matt Cutts who was one of Google's first 100 employees, spam defender, porn cookie man, defender of all things negative about Google. He complained on Google+ calling this "super annoying."
He wrote:
Just passing on the feedback that showing recent searches when you show up on the Google home page before you've even typed anything is super annoying. My Dad already asked how to turn it off, and he normally doesn't care about any UX/UI stuff. How do you actually turn it off?
So I emailed Google press team asking for what is going on. Was it a bug, was it a feature change, is there a way to turn it off. A Google PR team person responds a few hours later with this statement:
We launched the ability to see past searches by clicking the searchbox earlier this year. However, past searches should not be appearing immediately on page load, so we are working to fix this issue.
All normal so far, right? So Google admitted they had a bug and will fix it. Happens more often than you think. This is no big deal.
Then Danny Sullivan, who is now working at Google, comes on Twitter to tell me that it was his response sent through the PR person at Google.
And now @rustybrick’s head explodes when I answer a question @mattcutts raises about Google search https://t.co/8RddkOkVWv
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 21, 2017
Which then leads to one of Google's top search leads, Paul Haahr, chiming in as well:
If you had told me five years ago that @mattcutts would post to complain about a Google bug and @dannysullivan would reply for the company about it being fixed, I’d have thought you came from Bizarro World. But it works! https://t.co/s0rx7jhW9K
— Paul Haahr (@haahr) November 21, 2017
Where then Matt Cutts chimes in that he may start writing for Search Engine Land, as a joke:
it's all fun and games until I have to start writing columns for Search Engine Land.
— Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) November 22, 2017
Yes, my SEO and Google world is upside down and it is mind blowing:
How do I move on?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
