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 updated its AI Overviews help documents to show how to use web only filters and how to submit feedback. Google blasted the concept of toxic links. Google Search Console links report may be showing fewer links again. Google Image search now shows "See exact matches." Google mobile is testing a large blue visit button in search. And today is Memorial Day, so Google's logo is grayed out.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
In Face Of AI Overview Backlash, Google Updates Docs With How To Show Web Only Results & How To Give Feedback
Google has updated its help documentation page on AI Overviews to tell searchers how to show only web results in its search results (not show AI Overviews, videos, image, etc), plus how to give feedback on the AI Overviews Google provides. This obviously comes based on the backlash Google has received on some of these AI Overviews. -
Google's John Mueller Blasts The Concept Of Toxic Links, Again
Google's John Mueller once again blasted the "concept of toxic links," he wrote on Reddit, "The concept of toxic links is made up by SEO tools so that you pay them regularly." As you know, John is not a fan of link selling, buying and removal services - including tools that tell you what to remove. -
Some Reporting Fewer Links Reported In Google Search Console
I am hearing numerous reports from SEOs that the link report within Google Search Console is showing drastically fewer links than it did a month prior. I am not sure if this is impacting all SEO, but there are a number of SEOs complaining about this. -
Google Images "See Exact Matches" Helps You Find Who Stole Your Images
Google Images lets you upload an image, and then it may show you an option to "see exact matches." This essentially will show you all the locations where the image is found by Google across the web. Obviously, this can help you find out who stole your image, and then you can have fun trying to get them to take it down. -
Google Mobile Tests Large Blue Visit Button On Search Results
Google is testing a large blue visit button on its mobile search results interface. The button is hard to miss and shows up under the sitelinks for some searchers. Again, it is a test, so many of you will likely not be able to replicate it. -
Google Grayed Out Its Logo On Memorial Day Again
Google has grayed out, muted, its logo, for Memorial Day, again this year. It also applied an American flag under the search box with the message, "Honoring those who sacrificed." That links to the search results for [Memorial Day] on Google Search. -
Cirque du Soleil In Google Parking Lot
Looks like Google had some circus act in the parking lot at the Googleplex, the Mountain View office. Satyajeet Salgar from Google posted a video on X of what he said was "Cirque du Soleil outside the office."
Other Great Search Threads:
- Google launched a new setting for word pronunciation, “Slow", Radu Oncescu on X
- I ran 50 YMYL queries about equally divided btwn health/medical & financial. Here's how many showed an AI Overview response. 36% of YMYL queries overall, overwhelmingly on the health medical side., Mark Traphagen on X
- Did Google fire Peter The Greeter? His Instagram channel is gone :(, Barry Schwartz on X
- Notice of planned maintenance and upcoming changes to the Google Skillshop Platform, Shameem Adhikarath on X
- Yep, that final 20% is why I think Google should just turn off AI overviews for YMYL queries until they improve -> Google says it is “taking swift action” to remove AI Overviews on certain queries “where appropriate under our conte, Glenn Gabe on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Your guide to Google Analytics 4 attribution
- Google testing blue visit button for search result snippets
- The latest jobs in search marketing
- Google AI Overviews under fire for giving dangerous and wrong answers
- Improving content quality at scale with AI
- How important are backlinks for SEO in 2024?
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- BigQuery’s AI Leap Forward, CMSWire
Industry & Business
- Google invests $350 million in India's Flipkart, TechCrunch
- Licensing deals, litigation raise raft of familiar questions in fraught world of platforms and publishers, Columbia Journalism Review
- OpenAI to start using news content from News Corp. as part of a multiyear deal, AP News
- What Google’s antitrust cases mean for democracy, Financial Times (Sub)
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
- Hyderabad tourists' car plunges into Kottayam canal as Google Maps shows wrong route, Onmanorama
- Users Keep Struggling With Waze's "Offline Mode," Threaten With Google Maps Switch, AutoEvolution
Mobile & Voice
- Apple Vision Pro earns prestigious Black Pencil design award, AppleInsider
- Apple iOS 18, macOS 15 AI Features: Project Greymatter, Privacy, OpenAI Deal, Bloomberg
- Apple still looking to sign deal with Google for Gemini, despite OpenAI announcement likely coming in June - report, iMore
SEO
- 7 Free Online Reputation Management Tools for 2024, Go Fish Digital
- A Guide To Google Shopping Annotations, FeedArmy
- Google I/O 2024: AI Overviews & the Impact on SEO, Amsive
- The Top SERP Features in 2024 — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- Google just updated its algorithm. The Internet will never be the same, BBC News
PPC
- How Snapchat, Meta, Pinterest and Google are eyeing up TikTok ad dollars, Digiday
- Ultimate Guide to Product Data Feed Management, PPC Hero
- Announcing v202405 of the Google Ad Manager API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Arc browser’s Windows launch targeted by Google ads malvertising, Bleeping Computer
Search Features
- "Google is dead." Google's desperate bid to chase Microsoft's search AI has led to it recommending eating rocks, Windows Central
- For some reason, Google lets AI "answer" medical questions in "Search", The Decoder
- Glue on pizza? Google’s AI Overview shares wacky answers, Silicon Republic
- Google AI makes string of errors after relying on joke websites, Telegraph
- Google AI Overview Results Spread Conspiracy Theories, Pizza Glue Recipe, Rolling Stone
- Google AI Overviews keep making mistakes in 'isolated examples', 9to5Google
- Google AI Overviews Search Errors Cause Furor Online, New York Times
- Google criticized as AI Overview makes errors, like saying President Obama is Muslim, CNBC
- Google Is Playing a Dangerous Game With AI Search, The Atlantic
- Google promised a better search experience — now it’s telling us to put glue on our pizza, The Verge
- Google says the 'vast majority' of AI Overviews are good, 9to5Google
- Google Search Is Now a Giant Hallucination, Gizmodo
- Google's AI Overviews Being Laughed at by CEO of Perplexity, Business Insider
- Google's AI search tool produces flubs and fabrications, QZ
- Google’s AI faces social media mockery after viral errors, NBC News
- Google’s AI Keeps Hallucinating. Does Anyone Care?, Bloomberg
- Google’s AI Overview Appears To Produce Misleading Answers, Forbes
- Google’s AI search tool tells users to ‘eat rocks’ for your health, Financial Times (Sub)
- Shut it down: Google's AI search results are beyond terrible, Android Authority
- The Reason That Google's AI Suggests Using Glue on Pizza Shows a Deep Flaw With Tech Companies' AI Obsession, Futurism
- What Is Google's AI Overviews, and Why Is It Getting Things Wrong?, CNET
- Why Google’s AI search might recommend you mix glue into your pizza, Washington Post
- 17 cringe-worthy Google AI answers demonstrate the problem with training on the entire web, Tom's Hardware
- Google is in damage control mode following AI Overviews fiasco, Android Police
- Google scrambles to manually remove weird AI answers in search, The Verge
- Google’s AI Is Churning Out a Deluge of Completely Inaccurate, Totally Confident Garbage, Futurism
- Can you trust Google AI search results? The internet is unconvinced., Mashable
- Google AI Overviews 'disaster': Add glue to pizza sauce, 'health benefits' of tobacco, NY Post
- Google AI search tells users to glue pizza and eat rocks, BBC News
- Google Search AI can be helpful, just not with Overviews, 9to5Google
- In our tests Google's AI Overviews were faster, more bizarre, and sometimes just fine, Mashable
- Users Report Google’s AI Overview Thinks Tons of Fictional Characters Are Gay, Them
- What are Google’s AI Overviews good for?, TechCrunch
Other Search
- Is Google Killing Online Travel?, Skift
- No, Today’s AI Isn’t Sentient. Here’s How We Know, TIME
- The Great AI Chatbot Challenge: ChatGPT vs. Gemini vs. Copilot vs. Perplexity vs. Claude, Wall Street Journal
- Top 5 search engines you didn't know existed, Blue Array SEO
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.
