This is a programming note that Thursday and Friday are Sukkot and I will be offline the next two days. I will be offline on Thursday and Friday, October 17th and October 18th.

There will be stories posted each day, all of them were pre-written before the holiday and scheduled to be posted. I will be completely offline, so any social media posts or anything coming from this site, or my social channels are all scheduled beforehand.

I apologize for any spammy comments that slip through while should note while I am offline, I will do my best to catch up late Saturday night after nightfall.

If there are any Google algorithm updates or big news that I miss, I will catch up on them in the coming days.

Thank you all for reading, commenting, and sharing every day – I appreciate it.

Feel free to check out the archives or catch up with the weekly videos or just browse the search pics. Oh, and if you have nothing to do, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

If you want to learn more about this holiday, see Wikipedia.

Next week will be the same and then I am done being offline for a while…

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 Ads is testing expandable and collapsible carousel ads. Bing Search is also stealing from recipe bloggers and was called out for it. Google Ads will remove data older than 11 years. Google Ads announced new penalties for agencies, they are serious. Google Search is testing off-centered and angled design elements on mobile search.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Ads Tests Expandable & Collapsible Carousel Ads & Refinements
  
  
  Google is testing a new search ad format that lets you expand and collapse the sponsored search ads. When you expand the ads, it then shows a carousel of search ads. Google is also testing search refinements under search ads.





• 
  Bing Search Recipes Cheat Publishers?
  
  
  The other day I wrote about a Google test named Quick view for recipes that gave the searcher no reason, whatsoever, to click over the the publishers site. But then I was notified that Bing has something just as bad and it is fully live, it is not a test.
• 
  Google Ads To Release New Penalties For Agencies & Third Parties
  
  
  Google is updated its Google Ads third-party policy to add new penalties for third parties, such as PPC agencies, “that enable significant or sustained policy violations.” These new penalties include removal from programs, such as Google Partners, and account suspension.




• 
  Google Ads To Remove Data Older Than 11 Years Ago
  
  
  Google will be updating its Google Ads data retention policy on November 13, 2024 to only store data 11 years old or newer. Anything older than 11 years of data will be removed from Google’s servers. Google says if you want to hold on to the old data, make sure to download it before November 13th.
• 
  Google Search Tests Angled & Off-Centered Design Elements
  
  
  Google is testing angled or off-centered design elements within the search results. The search box seems angled, the favicons seem twisted, the box elements throughout seem tilted – it just seems like an interesting test that should never see the day of light.





• 
  Arab Googler Conference
  
  
  Here is a video I found online of a recent event Google hosted at one of the offices named the 2024 Arab Googler Conference. The video shows there were speakers, presentations, food and gifts.

Other Great Search Threads:

• How many of your SEO recommendations get shipped?, Kevin_Indig on X
• Google immediately denies edits for UPS Store/PO Box style listings, Local Search Forum
• Thinking about why Google can’t/doesn’t want to disclose all Search Terms. Its like buying a product but never seeing it. Is it because of Privacy reasons (lack of data, cookie consent on Google. com) or because Google doesn’t want, Thomas Eccel on X
• This is why, when we (eBay) met with Demand Media, where they proposed a content farm on one of our subdomains with rented content, we politely said no, ended the meeting, Dennis Goedegebuure on X
• Where does OpenAI go from here?, WebmasterWorld

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

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.

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.

A new video from a famous YouTuber talks about why Google is falling apart, it got over 1 million views in a couple of days. Google is testing replacing the full logo with the Super G logo at the top of the search results. Google Ads has a gross profit optimization campaign setting. Google is testing “top links” in the search results. And Bing “unshipped” 27 features, which ones to be exact, I don’t know.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Why Google Search Is Broken Video Gets Millions Of Views
  
  
  Arun Maini, a famous YouTuber known for his Mrwhosetheboss channel, posted a scathing video named “Why Google Search is Falling Apart. The video goes through three reasons why Google Search is failing: (1) the results page, (2) SEO, and (3) AI changes.
• 
  Google Ads Adds Gross Profit Optimization Campaign Setting
  
  
  Google Ads is rolling out a new campaign setting named Gross profit optimization. The gross profit is calculated by Google by applying the gross profit margins you set up in the gross profit optimization goal to the value of each conversion.
• 
  Google Search Tests Top Links Title For Sitelinks?
  
  
  Google is testing showing the term “top links” or “top links from…” in its search results snippets, that seem to give a title to the sitelinks shown under search result snippets. This is shown both on organic free search results and the search ads, Google Ads, in Google Search.
• 
  Microsoft Unshipped 27 Bing Features
  
  
  Did you know that Bing removed dozens of features? 27 Bing featured were “unshipped” according to the new CEO of Bing, Mustafa Suleyman, said on X. He wrote, “Simplicity is one of the core principles I am focused on. I am so proud that the Bing team has unshipped 27 features. Being brave enough to undo complexity is important.”
• 
  Google Search Tests Replacing Google Logo With Super G Logo
  
  
  Google is testing swapping out the normal spelled-out Google logo with the Super G (that is what Google calls it) logo at the top of the Google Search results page. I find it weird but I guess it can work?





• 
  Baby In The Google Bike Basket
  
  
  Here is a photo from the GooglePlex that caught my eye. It is of a newborn baby sitting in the basket of a Google Bike. Yep, a baby in a Google bike. The baby looks calm and collected.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Google refers to Google Ads as “GAds”… also, beginning on November 13, 2024, reporting data collected by Google Ads will be available for 11 years, Greg on X
• Update: A couple of us Google Brain / DeepMind researchers have left to work on something new. Some observations: * Off-the shelf AI libraries (e.g. RAG and agents) do not work well enough for high-quality products. * In-house research, Peter J. Liu on X
• AI Overviews showing for many queries now in Canada. I don’t see any of the tools reporting this uptick but I am getting them for a ton of my searches today. cc my fellow Canucks. Have you been noticing this?, Darcy Burk on X
• So after having a discussion today, one thing @searchmartin helped test/prove is that most AI engines will “search” specific websites for content, but they aren’t rendering javascript. This could/will be an issue for many sites who rely, Ryan Jones on X
• Starting to see examples of #AIO results in 🇨🇦 for the first time. Not sure if this already known or not., Manny Diaz on X
• Very interesting to see APNews Buyline surge back a bit over the past few days. They first dropped heavily in July and flatlined since then… until 10/9 when the spike. I do see they now block the Buyline directory via robots.txt, but a, Glenn Gabe on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

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.