SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: August 5, 2022
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 has shockingly said the Google product reviews update finished rolling out on August 2nd, despite us all thinking it would be done two weeks later. Google has a new way of handling searches with quotes in them. Google’s Things To Know feature has returned to the desktop results. Google is testing business listing photos as an overlay. Google Discover Ads gain features, insights, and Ads Editor and API support. Plus my weekly SEO video recap is live for you all to consume, like, subscribe and comment on. Have a great weekend everyone!
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update Finished On August 2nd & No One Said Anything
So Google has finished the rollout of the July 2022 Google Product Reviews Update in a record-breaking fashion, in a six-day period. It even shocked Google because Google originally estimated 14-21 days for the rollout and Google didn’t even mention anything on its social channels about the update being done rolling out. - Google Updates Searches With Quotes To Show Location Of Page That Contains Quoted Words
Google announced it has changed how it displays search results for queries that use queries. The search snippet will now display the portion of the page where the quotes match, so the searcher knows where to look on the page when clicking through to the URL. - RankRanger: Google Things To Know Back In Desktop Search Results
About two weeks ago, Google stopped showing the Things To Know box in the desktop search results but don’t fret, it seems to be back now. RankRanger’s tracker tool spotted that the Things To Know box has returned to normal levels within Google Search. - Google Business Listings Test Photo Overlay Interface In Web Search
Google seems to be testing overlaying the photos of some Google Business Profile listings in the web search results. Typically when you click on a photo in a Google Business Profile listing you are taken into the Google Maps interface to view the photos but this test simply overlays the photos on top of the web search results. - Google Ads Editor & API Now Support Discovery Ads, Plus New Audience Insights
Google announced a bunch of new things for Google Discover Ads yesterday. They include that the Google Ads Editor and Google Ads API now support Discovery ads, there are new audience insights at the Discovery campaign level, and new support for images with text overlays. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Product Reviews Update Done, Blogger SEO Best Practices, Mobile-First Indexing Alive, SEO Rants & Much More
Shockingly, Google finished rolling out the Google product reviews update on August 2nd and didn’t even tell us on social. We are seeing some volatility and fluctuations in Google Search may be due to the Google Product Reviews… - Outside Of The Google Chicago Subway Cars
We have posted numerous photos of the subway cars on the rooftop of the Google Chicago office before, just search this site. But this one shows a wider view and shows how really long this is. I always
Other Great Search Threads:
- Based on analyzing the July Product Reviews Update (which is still rolling out), I wanted to share some interesting SERP features I’ve seen that can help users while researching. E.g. From the web w/carousels, Buying Guides br, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
- Did you know: LSA Reviews Can totally be bought and are a huge ranking factor. “$4,000 for 1,500 reviews was a recent quote., Ben Fisher on Twitter
- It links to a specific part of a page ( https://t.co/zjDJaSF1tm ). In the case of your site, it loads so slowly that it doesn’t seem to work., John Mueller on Twitter
- Perhaps, instead of assuming there’s some secret SEO juice attracted / detracted from these pages, consider what it is you want to achieve with them, and wha, John Mueller on Twitter
- Yes, this is more about using JavaScript to change visibility of content in the DOM (which doesn’t really need JavaScript for indexing, it’s just how it’s commonly done in cod, John Mueller on Twitter
- I’m guessing it’s ranking either for different queries, or in a different way. Average ranking is tricky since it includes highs and lows. One way to find out more is to try to dril, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Other Search
Feedback:
Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing Search Features & Tests

Here is another batch of Microsoft Bing Search tests and features that were caught out in the wild that I wanted to share with you. They include sorting, filtering, carousels, animations, related content and maybe even some bugs?
(1) Sorting results by more parameters:
Bing test search filter to sort results by time period at the bottom of the search result.
You may already seen this at the top of the search result.@MSBing_Dev @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/Wc1AzUxHuV— Shameem Adhikarath (@shemiadhikarath) January 20, 2023
(2) Related videos under the video results:
Bing is testing related video searches under Bing Videos on SERP.
cc: @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/H26BiomGzU
— Shameem Adhikarath (@shemiadhikarath) January 24, 2023
(3) Dynamic and animated carousel information box of sorts, life cycle feature:
↗️ Cool feature by bing in desktop serp.
↗️ Life Cycle Visual thread. pic.twitter.com/0qCe8XYULp
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 19, 2023
Check the After and Before Screenshot- pic.twitter.com/aE1qJUp2Ol
— Anuj thaker (@Anuj_Thaker03) January 23, 2023
(4) See this location:
See this Location snippet at the top of the result. You can see the Bing location panel on the right side also.@MSBing_Dev @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/sIeJayYZ3W
— Shameem Adhikarath (@shemiadhikarath) January 20, 2023
(5) I am not sure what this is about:
Anyone else notice the @bing mouse logger script running on their search results? @facan it seems to be running and collecting data even if you don’t accept Microsoft’s privacy policy… @BingWMC is the data going to you? pic.twitter.com/3zuPeMnQIS
— @[email protected] (@davidiwanow) January 7, 2023
(6) Left side product refinement filters:
🆕 Bing test Refined By filter at left side of product section. pic.twitter.com/hz66CRmlVG
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 18, 2023
(7) Want more deals feature:
🆕Bing suggest online stores by adding this store carousal – “Want more deals? Browse these stores” pic.twitter.com/6eU9gSKkgW
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 23, 2023
(8) “Top Headlines” in Bing at the sitelink on the desktop search:
↗️ In Google, “Latest from xyz” is replicated as “Top Headlines” in Bing at the sitelink on the desktop search.
↗️ Here is snap from Google and Bing serp. pic.twitter.com/vzeUJYmnFb
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) January 30, 2023
(9) Bing is testing a different style for sitelinks on their – via Frank Sandtmann on Mastodon:
(10) Interesting character image on that search bar when you try to use a different search engine. I am not sure if it is new:
Bing is testing “search here” tabs on SERP. I have seen this first time. have you seen this.
For referance screenshots- pic.twitter.com/RAGQQR5GNd
— Anuj thaker (@Anuj_Thaker03) January 30, 2023
This is in addition to the other items we recently posted about Bing.
Forum discussion at Twitter threads above.
SEARCHENGINES
The Return Of Yahoo Search

Last week I reported that Yahoo Search posted on Twitter that it will be making search cool again. As I posted on Search Engine Land yesterday, we got more evidence that Yahoo is really moving forward with improving its search service.
Last night, Jim Lanzone, the CEO of Yahoo (more about him below), responded to Greg Sterling and myself about Yahoo getting into search:
Greg, I think you and Barry know – there are always new ways around the mountain. No reason to go straight at it. But we’re excited to start exploring again…and will be patient figuring it all out.
— Jim Lanzone (@jlanzone) January 31, 2023
So yes, we got that tweet that I covered last week, followed by a number of other tweets:
Just popping in to remind everyone that we did search before it was cool.
BRB making it cool again.
— Yahoo Search (@YahooSearch) January 20, 2023
But we got a lot more – we have a job listing for a Principal Product Manager, Yahoo Search. The job listing says, “We’re looking for a Product Manager for Search at Yahoo. We are looking for folks that are interested in pushing beyond the status quo to change the way folks interact and use search.”
Jim Lanzone, who was the CEO of Ask.com and worked for several years for Ask.com (previously Ask Jeeves), who is now the CEO at Yahoo. He is a search guy, originally, and I do suspect he will want to do big things again with search. Under Jim, Ask released some incredibly innovative features, like Ask 3D – which Google kind of ripped off with its Universal Search – as some say… So I think, Yahoo Search, under Jim Lanzone might be an interesting Yahoo Search to look at.
As I also said on Search Engine Land, Brian Provost, SVP & GM, Yahoo posted on LinkedIn about this job listing and wrote, “There’s going to be so much innovation in Search in the coming years and there aren’t many places where you can immediately have an impact this big. Would love to hear from you if you have a passion for Search and building product experiences.”
This is exciting – I suspect it will take a year or so to see anything – but I am looking forward to it.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Says Spammy Links From Porn Sites Are Not Something To Prioritize

Google has posted one of its Google SEO office-hours, this one was posted today, recorded in January, after the Google layoffs news, and one question asked was about if you should worry about spammy from porn sites and if they can cause bad for ranking in Google Search.
In short, Lizzi Sassman from Google said not really. She said, “This is not something that you need to prioritize too much since Google Systems are getting better at figuring out if a link is spammy.”
This is similar to what John Mueller of Google said in 2016, saying “Adult sites aren’t automatically spam, and links from them not automatically unnatural / problematic.” Of course, the question here is that we know the links are spammy and from adult sites. The question before was, the links were from adult sites and not necessarily spammy.
The question was asked and answered at the 5:20 mark in the video:
Here is the transcript:
Are spammy links from porn sites bad for ranking?
Anonymous is asking, I’ve seen a lot of spammy back links from porn websites linking to our site over the past month using the Google Search Console link tool. We do not want these. Is this bad for ranking and what can I do about it?
This is not something that you need to prioritize too much since Google Systems are getting better at figuring out if a link is spammy. But if you’re concerned or you’ve received a manual action, you can use the disavow tool in Search Console. You’ll need to create a list of the spammy links and then upload it to the tool. Do a search for disavow in Search Console for more steps on how to do this.
Later on in the video, there is a question about disavowing links in general. Google has downplayed the importance of disavowing over the years and this is related to this question, so here is that transcript:
Will disavowing links make my site rank better?
John: Jimmy asks, will disavowing spammy links linking to my website help recover from an algorithmic penalty?
So first off, I’d try to evaluate whether your site really created those spammy links. It’s common for sites to have random, weird links, and Google has a lot of practice ignoring those. On the other hand, if you actively built significant spammy links yourself, then yes, cleaning those up would make sense. The disavow tool can help if you can’t remove the links at the source. That said, this will not position your site as it was before, but it can help our algorithms to recognize that they can trust your site again, giving you a chance to work up from there. There’s no low effort, magic trick that makes a site pop up back afterwards. You really have to put in the work, just as if you did it from the start.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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