SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Generative Experience Goes Live For Some Searchers
The all-new and exciting Google Search Generative Experience is now rolling out as a labs experiment to some early waitlisted users. I should have access by now, but I am offline, I wrote this yesterday before I was able to play with it (which is why this news is not in my video, which I recorded earlier yesterday).
Google announced yesterday, a bit after 11 am ET, that it has begun to invite waitlisted users to try to new Search Generative Experience. “Today, we’re starting to open up access to Search Labs, a new program to access early experiments from Google,” Google wrote. “If you’ve already signed up for the waitlist at labs.google.com/search, you’ll be notified by email when you can start testing Labs experiments, like SGE (Search Generative Experience),” Google added.
I spent most of the day refreshing to see if I could play with it before I go offline for the holiday, but I did not gain access. Google did tell me I would likely be offline by the time I get access. So I will play a lot with it on Monday and hopefully report on what I see. But I embedded a lot of videos and screenshots below from others.
Note at around 5 pm ET I gained access, so I scrambled to do some queries and posted a Twitter thread, I embedded those tweets below over here.
I keep refreshing to see when I will see it today, I am offline starting tonight, so eager to see it before i go offline for two days https://t.co/4QSi87Fp5W pic.twitter.com/lX6SzCXQIS
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Here are lucky users who received access an hour or so after Google announced it opening up:
I received an email around noon ET saying “It’s your turn to try Search Labs”. Following the link took you to a page to turn these options on.
— Andrew (@spacerobot5) May 25, 2023
You can check to see if you have access by checking your email or going to labs.google.com/search, that is the screenshot above in my tweet.
Here are some screenshots and commentary for some who had early access:
From Andy Simpson – just look at all the clickable links:
My first SGE had to be local 😏 pic.twitter.com/aU9FNcByHf
— Andy Simpson 🇬🇧 (@ndyjsimpson) May 25, 2023
Some queries (long-tail / questions) it will autogenerate the SGE results. Shorter queries give you a button to generate. Example, “what is SEO?” vs. “SEO”. pic.twitter.com/cQGE30sX0C
— Andrew (@spacerobot5) May 25, 2023
— Andrew (@spacerobot5) May 25, 2023
buy a surfboard online pic.twitter.com/9IK4nG6PmB
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Google SGE is out in Beta – You better watch out….. pic.twitter.com/KH7ZoM45TY
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Who is Ron Desantis pic.twitter.com/Hc4uanKHkt
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
PIzza 10019 pic.twitter.com/XaocOXGfZ9
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Not all local results link to Google.com
Plumber near me pic.twitter.com/vqtNLS3w7v
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Reebok Sneakers pic.twitter.com/YaUYOAIZjW
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Local results show links to Google Business Profiles on Google.com
What are the best bars in amsterdam pic.twitter.com/flzZ76T6Az
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
How can I solve a rubik’s’ cube? pic.twitter.com/FzGpk4o9ua
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
Here is when Google won’t show an AI-generated answer:
Not really showing up for News related stories or Politics and not available on Mobile search as of yet. pic.twitter.com/NE8lGouD4B
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
I would like to visit Isreal with my family where should we stay and where should we visit? pic.twitter.com/7yZvws9AS5
— Brendan OConnell (@BrendanOConnel) May 25, 2023
wow… pic.twitter.com/ymLKy1Klr6
— Andy Simpson 🇬🇧 (@ndyjsimpson) May 25, 2023
If I do get access before I go offline, I’ll post some quick screenshots on Twitter @rustybrick and try to embed them below this. It is the best I can do with having to turn off everything for the holiday.
Google said, “Once you’re in, the new generative AI powered Search experience will help you take some of the work out of searching, so you can understand a topic faster, uncover new viewpoints and insights and get things done more easily. So instead of asking a series of questions and piecing together that information yourself, Search now can do some of that heavy lifting for you.”
To see my deep-dive on the Google Search Generative Experience announcement, read over here.
My Really Quick Review
Then at about 5pm ET I gained access and I really don’t have time, so I did a Twitter thread which I am embedding here. I will say that I am very impressed with the clickability of the results, I do think it will drive clicks to publishers:
Here we go, let’s get started pic.twitter.com/nEvvKn9xos
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
When does my holiday start, it is not giving me the time but I do like how you can expand the answers and look at all those snackable organic/free links you can click on pic.twitter.com/yjhNsXwCdY
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
I should get a haircut but I honestly don’t pay more than $20-25 in my area, not sure what this is about. I do like the 5 pack (no longer a 3 paack) pic.twitter.com/YWVWbrOEs0
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Here are some “how to” queries pic.twitter.com/WXAZYtATNY
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
More health/medical queries where Google is happy to give generative AI answers pic.twitter.com/iKz5AwZSjW
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Let’s do some sports questions pic.twitter.com/yr6Du9laUO
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Asking for marriage’ish advice 🙂 pic.twitter.com/654BmHOkLO
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Politics and news – not much here pic.twitter.com/tvudZjynbg
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
More financial queries, super limited in generative AI pic.twitter.com/eWjYLoLbFe
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
More mobile pic.twitter.com/mLQ3Zw8OzU
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Here are real estate results and the second part shows that Google still shows featured snippets:
Going offline soon, but I found featured snippet still do show up. pic.twitter.com/d4xro2bHFl
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
People also ask also…
Trying to bring up some recent stories I wrote… pic.twitter.com/Y4lxDsKozH
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 25, 2023
Happy futuristic searching folks!
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Shavout.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”
Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”
I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:
I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理/경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024
Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.
Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Core Update Flux, AdSense Ad Intent, California Link Tax & More
For the original iTunes version, click here.
The Google March 2024 core update is still rolling out, almost 6 weeks now, and we saw two shifts of ranking volatility, both mid-week and the weekend before. Google’s Danny Sullivan went on the defensive on search quality and forum listings in the search results. Google’s site reputation abuse spam policy will be fought both algorithmically and through manual actions. Google responded to The Verge mocking its search rankings over best printer. Google Search Console has a new unused ownership tokens page. Some sites may see the Google Indexing API work for a limited time on unsupported content types. And having two sites won’t result in your sites search ranking decline. BingBot now fully supports Brotli compression and will test Zstd compression soon. Google Search is testing thumbs-up and down buttons for product carousels. Google is testing new sitelinks designs. Google Notes on Search may not go away in May. Google Maps no longer supports draft reviews. Google Maps released a bunch of new maps, directions, travel and EV features. Google Ads Demand Gen campaigns now support AI image generation. Google Ads is testing a similar product carousel. Google Ads reminds advertisers that ad customizers are going away. Google Ads is testing a new horizontal ad card format. Google AdSense has these new ad intent formats. Google AdSense publishers are reporting lower RPM earnings since mid-February. Google threatens to drop links to California news publishers amongst link tax bill. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.
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