Gary Illyes from Google said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be “annoying” and complex and confusing. So he is open to ideas on how to replace it and make it work for both small and really large websites.

He wrote this on LinkedIn saying, “Things I’ve learned and heard in Sofia at the SERPConf event.” He said one of those is that “hreflang is annoying.”

Gary wrote, “I don’t disagree,” that I guess he understands why SEOs and creators find it annoying.

So he said that he open to new ideas. He wrote, “I’m still very open to coming up with something less annoying, but it needs to work for small sites and mammoths as well, while delivering at least the same amount of information.”

So if you have ideas, let Gary know, he wrote, “Ping if you have ideas.”

You can use hreflang to tell Google about the variations of your content. This helps Google understand the various pages and how they are localized variations of the same content. But the implementation can be confusing and detailed, why he said it can be annoying. Several years ago, John Mueller said hreflang can be the most complex aspect in SEO.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

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 posted its first feature announcement in over two months, it is on PMax updates. Bing Webmaster Tools fixed a notification bug. Google SGE renamed its AI overviews to AI Answer. Most SEOs have not filled in the Google March 2024 core update feedback form. A Google search for flag GIFs can lead to Nazi flags.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Ads Posts First New Feature Announcement In Two Months – PMax Updates
  
  
  Google Ads has posted its first new features announcement in its help section in over two months. This was to announce several Performance Max campaigns features, which we will get into below. But like I reported earlier, Google has not posted anything in this section for two months prior to posting this new announcement.
• 
  Googling “Flag GIF” Leads To Nazi Flags In Google Search
  
  
  If you search for [flag GIF] on Google, click on the “waiving” refinement, you are taken to images of Nazi flags. I waited a full week to report on this, a full week from when Google acknowledged the issue and it is still an issue.





• 
  Bing Webmaster Tools Notifications & Insights Bug Fixed
  
  
  Fabrice Canel from Microsoft confirmed Microsoft has fixed a bug with Bing Webmaster Tools showing inaccurate and/or irrelevant notifications in the notifications and insights section. Fabrice wrote, “Happy to report that the fix has been implemented and the issue should now be resolved for your site and all sites once data is refreshed.”





• 
  Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title – AI Answer
  
  
  Google is now labeling or using the title of its SGE, Search Generative Experience, “AI Answer.” This replaces the title “AI Overviews” and “Al overviews are experimental.” This change happened on Monday, I believe.





• 
  Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update
  
  
  Google opened up its feedback form after it announced the Google March 2024 core update was completed and it seems most SEOs did not send Google feedback. Why? Maybe because many don’t believe Google will use that feedback to help them? Maybe because SEOs don’t want to share specifics with Google?





• 
  Sundar Pichai 20 Year Google Anniversary
  
  
  Google’s CEO, Sunday Pichai, on April 26, 2024, posted on Instagram that he is celebrating him 20 year anniversary of working at Google. He started on April 26, 2004 and is now running the place.

Other Great Search Threads:

• ave you seen this before…. Seems like looker studio google has got lot of spam links injected …i just encountered this while checking something… its tons of content… made a search with site: hea, Raman on X
• Gartner: “By 2026, Google will lose 1/4 of queries to AI” Datos: “Really? Let’s investigate that claim with data from millions of real Internet users.” https://t.co/5QErT9g9IF Embarrassing that th, Rand Fishkin on X
• The favicon guidelines are at https://t.co/9z0HOt9H5f – not all sites have unique favicons, so I wouldn’t immediately call that spammy. For images in general, a legal path may be open via the DMCA process., John Mueller on X
• Well, moved to Munich, Germany., John Mueller on X
• The more server logs and crawl patterns I see, the more I’m sure the world needs more SEOs. Of the good kind. You see, part of good tech SEO is fixing spiders traps, optimizing crawling, speeding up sites. 1/6, Joost de Valk on X
• This Google Ads thing is becoming really expensive. Fee increase from 2% to 2.5% for Italy. Fee increase from 2% to 3% for Spain. Fee increase from 5% to 7% for Turkey., Thomas Eccel on X
• We’re committed to ongoing and planned enhancements and listening to great ideas as yours to help us maximizing our crawl efficiency and minimize crawls. There’s no AI or PhD that can outperform the IndexNow signal when it is properly configured. We f, Fabrice Canel on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

• Google takes lion’s share of UK ad market as publishers lose out, Press Gazette
• Apple poaches AI experts from Google and builds a secret AI lab, QZ
• Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race, New York Times
• Google Founders’ Hand-Picked CEO Nears Billionaire Status Too, Bloomberg
• Google needs a more formalized way to kill products, 9to5Google
• Local Memo: Rank Isn’t the Primary Decision Factor for Consumers in Many Industries, SOCi
• San Francisco homeless people to receive $1,000 a month from Google, The San Francisco Standard
• Google sued by US artists over AI image generator, Reuters
• Meet the Woman Who Showed President Biden ChatGPT—and Helped Set the Course for AI, Wired
• Microsoft and OpenAI sued yet again by Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, Engadget
• Microsoft Concern About Google’s Lead Drove Investment in OpenAI, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

• AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’, 404 Media
• How to combine SEO and CRO, Blue Array SEO
• 3 Steps to Get Ahead in an AI-First Search World, BrightEdge
• Carving a Career in SEO — How NOT to Get Taken for a Ride, Moz
• How Did Authority Bloggers Beat the Google Update?, Chris Garrett
• SEO A/B testing: realizing the value of a good experimentation program, Search Pilot
• SEO for Developers: 10 Best Practices to Know, Semrush
• SGE: New data and the future of SEO and SERP…, STAT Search Analytics
• User Search Journeys: Advantages and Use Cases for Agencies, seoClarity
• What is bounce rate and how has it changed?, Wix SEO Hub
• Why Google SEO Traffic is More Appealing Than Social Media, Adam Riemer
• Yoast SEO 22.6 brings more enhancements, Yoast
• What to do about Google’s Reddit habit?, SERP’s Up SEO Podcast

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.

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.

Microsoft Advertising has officially added Copilot to help advertisers using AI. Tuta complained to regulators over its ranking drop with the Google core update. We saw the same person rank in Google Search with multiple entities. Google renames product sites to product websites. Google Search App has a neat screenshot feature. I am offline today, all these stories were pre-written and scheduled, including this newsletter.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Copilot Now In Microsoft Advertising Platform
  
  
  Microsoft announced the general availability of Copilot in the Microsoft Advertising Platform. This means you can now use Copilot (Microsoft’s AI) natural language conversational chat, asset recommendations, and image asset creation in the Microsoft Advertising platform.
• 
  The Same Person With Multiple Entities In Google Search
  
  
  Last week, Shameem Adhikarath shared an example of an individual that shows up twice as two different entities in Google Search. It is like maybe Google was fed two distinct entities for the same person and now Google is showing both of them, with the same name and same query.
• 
  Tuta Complains To EU Regulators Over Google March 2024 Core Update Ranking Drop
  
  
  Tuta Mail, a popular encrypted email service, complained to European Union tech regulators that Google dropped its rankings for all sorts of keyword phrases with the Google March 2024 core update. Tuta is upset they no longer rank for [encrypted email] after this update.




• 
  Google Search App “Send A Link To This Page” When You Take A Screenshot
  
  
  One of my pet peeves is when people send me screenshots of pages they want me to read and do not include the URL to that page. Well, the Google Search app is trying to solve that issue by telling the person who took a screenshot to “Send a link to this page” by clicking a big blue “Share” button.
• 
  Google Renames Product Sites To Product Websites
  
  
  Google has renamed the Product Sites search filter to Product Websites. These only really show up in the European regions and starting last week, Google renamed “Sites” to “Websites.”
• 
  Slimmer Google Dog Tag
  
  
  We have seen numerous dog tags for Dooglers, Google dogs, before. But this one looks slimmer than the old dog tags. I found this new photo of a Doogler and you can see the small Google collar tag.
• 
  Programming Note: Offline For Last Days Of Passover
  
  
  This is a programming note that I will be completely offline for the last days of the Passover holiday. The last days of Passover are on Monday and Tuesday, April 29th and 30th. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

• xAI, Elon Musk’s OpenAI rival, is closing on $6B in funding and X, his social network, is already one of its shareholders, TechCrunch
• Google plans $3 billion data center investment in Indiana, Virginia, Reuters
• Google to expand hardware R&D team in Taiwan, Nikkei Asia
• Investors Cheer AI Spending Boom in Big Tech—Just Not at Meta, Wall Street Journal
• Sundar Pichai Celebrates Googleversary, completes 20 years at Google, News9live

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.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.