Daily Search Forum Recap: February 27, 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’s local pack dropped the ability to see more results, for 16+ hours. Google Search’s travel/hotel listings are being hijacked in the EU regions. Google Analytics 4 now has a new default Google Ads report. Google Ads now color codes the limited by budget status. Microsoft wanted to sell Bing Search to Apple but Apple said it had quality issues, Google said.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Drops Link To See More Local Results From Search Results
  
  
  Google has dropped the “more places,” “view all” and links to see more local results from the local pack, the places box, in the Google Search results. This happened last night around 5 pm ET, and I thought it was a bug, but so far, Google has not yet fixed the issue.
• 
  Google Europe Search Hijacking Bug With TripAdvisor, Booking, Hotel.com & More
  
  
  Google Search may have a bug in the European regions with hotel listings being hijacked by spammy sites. Google will show TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, Booking.com and other legit sites in its search results but when you click on those listings, you’re taken to a different site, a spammy site.




• 
  Report: Microsoft Tried Selling Bing To Apple But Search Quality Issues Held It Back
  
  
  According to a court filing by Google, Microsoft tried to sell Bing, its search engine, to Apple but Apple did not want it because of search quality issues and lack of investment. Plus, Microsoft pitched Apple to make Bing the default search engine but that was rejected as well.
• 
  Google Analytics Adds New Default Google Ads Report
  
  
  Google Analytics seems to have added a new default Google Ads report to the performance reporting section. This is if you have linked your Google Analytics 4 profile with your Google Ads account.
• 
  Google Ads Limited By Budget Status Now Color Coded
  
  
  Google Ads now will use colors, like yellow and red background highlights, for the “limited by budget” status column. I assume a yellow indicator color is not as limited as a red indicator color.




• 
  Google Photos Sprinkle Waffle
  
  
  Here is an old photo I just recently found on Instagram but is from way back in 2015. It is of a fancy looking waffle in a Google Photos box, it looks delicious but by now I am sure it is pretty hard to eat.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Hi All, This is a bug (and it was thought to be a non-brand query) — a fix is underway., AdsLiaison on X
• Google’s “hot commands” vs “hot words” -> Google wants to patent a way to predict automated assistant interactions using “a fusion of visual and audio input” “In place of needing to say specific hot words or wake words like “h, Glenn Gabe on X
• I’m done with @Google. I know many good individuals working there, but as a company they’ve irrevocably lost my trust. I’m “moving out”. Here’s why: I’ve been reading Google’s Gemini damage control posts. I think they’re simply not, Mario Juric on X
• The irony of irrelevant, old Reddit posts outranking Google’s official announcement here, Lily Ray on X
• We’ve rolled out a few Copilot GPTs in Microsoft Copilot. They can help create designs, plan your next vacation, learn to cook a new recipe, or create a custom workout plan. GPTs leverage contextual instructions in the prompt and do, Jordi Ribas on X
• Yes, it was an edge case that affected this query., AdsLiaison on X
• I introduced for Bing in 2012 the clean-parameter as a hint in robots.txt file to allow webmasters to specify which URL parameters can be safely ignored by web crawlers. We removed documentation on it whe, Fabrice Canel on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

• 10 of the Best SEO APIs for Enterprises, seoClarity
• 5 ways that Google’s helpful content system could evolve based on the evolution of previous punitive algorithm updates like Panda and Penguin, GSQI
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): The New Core Web Vitals Metric SEOs Should Know, Lumar
• SEO in 2023: Winners, Losers, and Overall Trends, Amsive
• SEO is not DEAD, HackerNoon
• SEOs, Are You Using These 6 Mental Models?, Ahrefs
• Find Your Difficulty Benchmark – Next Level, Moz
• SEO Framework – the Execution (EP8), Compass Digital Strategies

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

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