Daily Search Forum Recap: February 22, 2024

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google has a bug with negative keyword operators in shopping search. Google's shopping carousels dynamically change the results below it. Google is testing fading in search result snippet text. Bing Search has sub-sitelinks. Bing is testing next page and refresh page links in the footer.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Bug With Google Shopping Exclude Search Operator
  Google has a confirmed bug with using negative search operators, a way to exclude words from your search results, within Google Shopping. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, confirmed the issue on X saying, "We did have a bug where it wasn't working within some shopping results. That might not be resolved yet."
• Bing Search Sub-Sitelinks (Expandable Sitelinks)
  Bing Search's sitelinks can sometimes be expanded to see sub-sitelinks, deeper level sitelinks. This is something Google experimented from time to time but something Bing Search does on mobile right now, at least for me.
• Google Shopping Carousel Dynamically Changes Products Below
  Google has these latest styles and shop the look carousels for some clothing queries. Now when you swipe through the carousel, Google will dynamically change the products listed below them.
• Google Fading In Text Of Search Result Snippets On Scroll
  Google is testing fading in the text of the search result snippets as you scroll down to see more search results. The text is a light gray, and then it becomes a more solid black as you scroll toward that search result snippet.
• Bing Tests Next Page & Refresh In Place Of Normal Pagination
  Bing is testing replacing its search pagination bar at the footer of the search results with a "next page" button and a "refresh" button. This is instead of showing the number of pages of search results that you can click on.
• Google St. John's Terminal Office Ribbon Cutting
  Yesterday, Google opened a new office in New York City in St. John's Terminal. Google has a blog post with more details, a video and more photos. But here is a ribbon cutting with important Googlers and politicians from yesterday.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Deindexation of low-quality pages, Reddit
• Cached pages were not historical record of changes to a web page. They were a one-time snapshot of what we saw when we indexed a page at a particular moment in time. That snapshot would be overwritten the next t, Google SearchLiaison on X
• We are aware that Gemini is offering inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions, and we are working to fix this immediately. As part of our AI principles https://t.co/BK786xbkey, we design our image generation cap, Jack Krawczyk on X
• We've launched a new article in the GA4 Help Center on Event Parameters! Use this to understand GA4 event parameters, and whether they come from automatically collected events, enhanced measurement events, or recommended events, Carly Boddy on X
• Yes, we are discussing this - minimizing additional actions the user needs to perform. We will need to implement a quick "undo" option then., Mikhail Parakhin on X
• If your site can get hacked, then you need to secure it anyway. Real hackers don't use spammy referrers. Referral spam like this is ancient, you can block it if you're sure it's irrelevant, b, John Mueller on X
• Ok. Who would be with me if I proposed a change to WordPress core where we default to blocking all the SEO tools (semrush, Majestic, Moz, ahrefs, etc) from crawling? I see no benefit to site owners from their crawls and it’s costing, Joost de Valk on X
• We're already working to address recent issues with Gemini's image generation feature. While we do this, we're going to pause the image generation of people and will re-release an improved version soon., Google Communications on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Pinterest launches cooking series with shoppable experience
• What should Google rank in Search when all the content sucks?
• Instagram pilots background editing tool and in-stream ordering
• [Next week] Actionable search marketing training from SMX!
• Google Ads offering businesses free consultations through Gmail pop-ups
• Integrating SEO into the multichannel customer journey
• 9 of the best custom GPTs for SEO in the GPT store
• Who won: Measuring the most effective Super Bowl 2024 Ads

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Conversions in GA4 - Everything You Need to Know, Data Driven U

Industry & Business

• Google DeepMind forms a new org focused on AI safety, TechCrunch
• Welcome to St. John’s Terminal, our new home in New York City, Google Blog
• Exclusive: Reddit in AI content licensing deal with Google, Reuters

Links & Content Marketing

• 5 Content Marketing Trends for Success in 2024 [New Data], Siege Media
• Absolute vs. Relative URL Linking: What’s the Big Deal, Anyway?, BruceClay
• How “AI-Ready” Is Your Content?, Amsive
• Thin content: What it is and how to do better for your users and your website, Wix SEO Hub

Local & Maps

• Waze starts rolling out alerts for speed bumps and sharp turns, 9to5Google
• Google Maps Could Show Plug And Charge EV Stations, Ford Authority
• Google Maps error forces lost tourists to walk 60km from bogged car in Cape York, ABC News

Mobile & Voice

• In a First, Apple Captures Top 7 Spots in Global List of Top 10 Best-selling Smartphones, Counterpoint
• Gboard rolling out 'Scan Text' OCR tool on Android, 9to5Google

SEO

• How To Implement ProductGroup Schema, Go Fish Digital
• Onboarding form for new SEO client, Corina Burri
• Why big brands dominate Google. And why this is likely to change., Marie Haynes

PPC

• PPC Made Easy: 4 Strategies To Save Time With No-Cost Tools, Search Engine Journal

Search Features

• Google Search is hopelessly broken, and AI will make it even worse, BGR
• Google to Pause Gemini Image Generation of People After Issues, Bloomberg

Other Search

• Advances in private training for production on-device language models, Google Research Blog
• Gemini is now available for Google Workspace customers, Google Blog
• Gemma: Google introduces new state-of-the-art open models, Google Blog
• One month with Microsoft’s AI vision of the future: Copilot Pro, The Verge
• Google Can Soon Train Its AI on Crazy Reddit Posts, Business Insider

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.