Daily Search Forum Recap: November 16, 2023

Nov 16, 2023 - 4:00 pm 1 by

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.

This newsletter is a lot bigger than the average, there was just a lot of news in the past day and I am saving some for tomorrow. We had Google tell us the hidden gems search ranking feature has been live for months and it is not part of the helpful content system. Google launched a new personalized version of its search results. Google has a new follow button and a new labs experiment for notes within Search. Google SGE added new features for shopping and gift ideas. Google Search Console added a new robots.txt report but dropped the robots.txt tester tool. Google supports an updated courses information structured data. And more to come tomorrow - sorry for the rather large newsletter.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

  • Google Hidden Gems Ranking Algorithm Update
    Google announced the hidden gems ranking system has been rolling out. This hidden gems update helps promote content deep within forum posts, social media, and blog posts that Google Search thinks provide authentic content based on personal insights and experiences.
  • Google To Personalize Search Results To Your Previous Searches
    Google also announced that later this year, in the US, Google will make it easier for you to find your favorite sites by showing you sites you view more often, more often in the search results. Plus, Google will make the search results more personalized with Perspectives, highlight more creator profiles and more.
  • Google Search Adds Follow Feature
    Google is rolling out a new search feature to let you follow topics. You can click on a follow button and Google will not only show you more of those topics in your Discover feed but also show you more of that topic in Google Search.
  • Google Search Labs Adds Notes To Search Results
    Google Search is testing a new notes feature where you can add your own notes to the search results and also see the notes others have left on that search result. This is a Search Labs experiment that you need to opt into and launched in the US and India on mobile and within the Google app.
  • New Google Search Console Robots.txt Report Replaced Robots.txt Tester Tool
    Google announced a new robots.txt report within Google Search Console and at the same time said it will sunset the old robots.txt tester tool. The new tool shows which robots.txt files Google found for the top 20 hosts on your site, the last time they were crawled, and any warnings or errors encountered.
  • Bing Chat Now Named Copilot
    Microsoft has rebranded Bing Chat to Copilot. "Beginning today, Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise are becoming Copilot, with commercial data protection enforced when any eligible user is signed in with Microsoft Entra ID," they wrote yesterday.
  • Google Adds New Course Carousel Info & Search Console Reports
    Google announced it has expanded its courses rich results so you can now provide new data such as pricing, educational level, ratings, and length with structured data. Google said this data can appear in a new carousel feature within Google Search.
  • Google SGE Gift Ideas, Generate Images For Apparel & Men's Virtual Try On
    Google announced some new Search Generative Experience (SGE) features for shopping, including gift ideas, generating images for apparel purposes, and more virtual try-on features.
  • Google Dublin Pool Table View
    Google loves their office pool tables, I mean, I suspect they have purchased hundreds of pool tables over the years. Here is one in the Dublin office. The pool table is cool but where they placed the

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

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