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 is testing new ads named "you may also like" in the SGE results. Google added the Google Safety crawler to the Googlebot list. Google said don't add prices for flights in your titles. Google is testing arrows in sitelinks. Bing is doing the hard-to-see ad labels in the image results. Google sued over fraudulent DMCA takedown requests.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Sues Over Fraudulent & Weaponized DMCA Takedown Requests
Google has filed a lawsuit against two men who allegedly used Google's DMCA process "aimed at removing hundreds of thousands of their competitors' website URLs from Google Search results," the lawsuit writes. - Bing Image Search Hard To See Ad Labels
We covered a number of the tests Microsoft Bing Search has been trying around its ad labels, mostly around it making the ad label harder and harder to tell if it is an ad or not. Now, in Bing's image search, Bing is doing the same. - Google Safety Crawler Google Help Documentation
Google has updated its help documentation specific to Google Crawlers and added the Google Safety crawler to the list of special case crawlers. This crawler is not new but Google decided to add it because they "received many questions" over the past year about this crawler. - Google Tests North East Arrow By Sitelinks
Google is testing placing a north east arrow symbol by the sitelinks in the Google Search results. We have seen arrows before with sitelinks but not the north east error symbol. - Google Testing SGE Ads - Sponsored Content - You May Also Like
Google seems to be testing a new ad format for the Search Generative Experience named "you may also like." These seem like content ads, where Google shows sponsored content, articles, in a carousel, below the follow-up section after asking SGE follow up questions. - Google: Avoid Including Prices Of Flights In Your Title Tags
Google has updated its title links help documentation to say it is best to avoid including flight price information in title elements. Google said this is because flight prices rapidly change and if you show one price to a searcher and then they click over from Google to your page and it is a different price, that can lead to a bad experience. - Google Curved Lobby Glow Wall In Atlanta
Here is a photo of one of the lobbies in the Google Atlanta office. It is red, curved and has these embedded pixelated lights in the wall. It looks cool and eye catching, so I thought I'd share it.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Creative mode with Search turned off is the "maximum flight of fancy" configuration. If you want more grounded responses, you can turn Search back on, use Precise or both., Mikhail Parakhin on X
- If you try turning Search off in Precise mode, you will see results very similar to ChatGPT. Exercise for an inquisitive reader: what do you think is causing this difference? Why would we keep an "inferior" model in Creative? ;-), Mikhail Parakhin on X
- Still on a flight, so might still disappear for a while, but hopefully we are almost there., Mikhail Parakhin on X
- Um, that's not what the address line is for, Joy Hawkins on X
- I'll give a hint: if you don't use Search, you have to rely on the model as the repository of knowledge, so you have to constantly train it to keep reasonably up to date. But if you do use Search, you have flexibility..., Mikhail Parakhin on X
- If they knew what the ranking algorithms were doing, they probably wouldn't have seen a drop, right?, John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Microsoft updates email notification process for ad disapprovals
- Report: Yandex search engine for sale
- Google Analytics 4 can now be integrated with Salesforce Marketing Cloud
- Microsoft and Baidu Global team up for enhanced ad targeting capabilities
- Your 2024 guide to SEO reporting and tracking
- Google’s Florida update: 20 years since the SEO ‘volcanic eruption’
- SearchBot upgraded with 12 new personas, AI image generation
- Boosting search conversions: 5 behavioral strategies to test
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Ensure a Flawless GA4 Setup and Ongoing Tracking Functionality, Moz
- How To See Search Terms in Google Analytics 4, Go Fish Digital
- Admin redesign, Scheduled emails and more, Google Analytics Help
Industry & Business
- But What Do We Do If Google Is Legitimately Just A Better Search Engine?, TechDirt
- Google loses battle to redact confidential info leaked by final witness, Ars Technica
- Google Sues Men Who Weaponized DMCA Notices to Crush Competition, TorrentFreak
- Microsoft, Google will not challenge EU gatekeeper status, Yahoo Finance
- Why Microsoft’s monopoly legacy looms over Google antitrust case, The Seattle Times
- Yandex to Fully Divest Russian Assets and Distribute Proceeds, Bloomberg
- Google’s Pichai Juggles Defending Back-to-Back Monopoly Trials, Bloomberg
Links & Content Marketing
- The State of Link Building Industry 2023, Smarty Marketing
- The Career-Guiding Question McKinsey's Publishing Leader Always Asks, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- Google Maps Indoor Live View lands at Sydney Airport, International Airport Review
- Google Maps removes crime hotspot Nyanga from its routes, News24
- Link Building Tips For An Ecommerce Website, Koozai
Mobile & Voice
- Apple shares 2023 App Store Awards finalists, AppleInsider
- Sixth developer beta of visionOS is out now, AppleInsider
- Apple extends free period for iPhone 14 satellite features, 9to5Mac
SEO
- How to create product detail pages that convert, Wix SEO Hub
- How to Migrate a URLs and Not Lose SEO Traffic, Adam Riemer
- Niche Driven SEO Guide: Definition, Benefits, and Strategy Explained, Semrush
- SEO for Photographers: 8 Steps to Boost Brand Visibility, semr
- Why Do Sites Struggle with Traffic and What Can SEO Do About It?, BruceClay
PPC
- Microsoft Advertising partners with Baidu Global, Microsoft Advertising
- Updates to Display & Video 360 API Customer Match uploads, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Updates to our child and teen ads policies (December 2023), Google Advertising Policies Help
- Which Companies Spend the Most on Digital Advertising? [Study], Semrush
- GroupM agrees to new program that lets clients experiment within Google’s Privacy Sandbox, Digiday
Other Search
- Comment: Google 'News' is already riddled with AI copies of actual articles, 9to5Google
- Scaling multimodal understanding to long videos, Google Research Blog
Feedback:
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