SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: December 30, 2021

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 said there is no practical difference between using a nofollow link attribute versus the UGC or sponsored link attribute in terms of SEO value. Google said it can handle really long HTML sizes. Google Ads is rolling out the asset library directly in Google Ads. Google’s John Mueller gave a nice unpaid endorsement to Screaming Frog. And Google launched its new years eve Doodle and also easter egg confetti. Since tomorrow is new years eve and this week has been dead (like SEO dead), I’ll probably just post the weekly video recap tomorrow unless something big breaks.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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- Google: No Difference In SEO Value Between Nofollow, UGC Or Sponsored Link Attributes
Google’s John Mueller confirmed what it has I believe said before, that there is not difference in terms of SEO value between the three link attributes. Google supports nofollow and also UGC and sponsored link attributes. In terms of the difference in SEO value, there is no such thing, they all do the same thing – which is not pass any link value from the source page.
- Google: No Difference In SEO Value Between Nofollow, UGC Or Sponsored Link Attributes
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- Google: We Can Handle Really Long HTML Sizes Unlike Bing
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter when it comes to really long HTML file sizes, Google can handle it – and you should not worry about it. The question came up when someone shared a screenshot of Bing Webmaster Tools giving a notice that the “HTML size is too long.”
- Google: We Can Handle Really Long HTML Sizes Unlike Bing
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- Google Ads Now Has Asset Library
Google Ads is rolling out or now has the Google Creative Studio’s asset library feature directly in Google Ads. I believe Brett Bodofsky was one of the first to share this on Twitter and George Nguyen confirmed it with Google a couple weeks ago.
- Google Ads Now Has Asset Library
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- Google Search New Years Confetti Again & New Years Eve Doodle
If you do a search in Google Search for [new years] related keywords, Google will bring back the confetti easter egg from last year. Google by default will throw down some confetti and then let you also add more confetti to the mix by clicking on the confetti popper.
- Google Search New Years Confetti Again & New Years Eve Doodle
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- Google’s John Mueller Pays For Screaming Frog
How is this for an unpaid endorsement of your SEO product – John Mueller of Google said that he pays for a license to Screaming Frog. He said this on Reddit, where someone was asking how can he convince his boss to pony up for that license.
- Google’s John Mueller Pays For Screaming Frog
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- Google Office Old City Streets Like Hallway Theme
Here is a photo from one of the Google offices where they transformed one of the hallways into a old city like look. The photo was taken back in 2017 and posted on Instagram.
- Google Office Old City Streets Like Hallway Theme
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.
SEARCHENGINES
Jeff Ferguson On Issues With SEO Studies & Ranking Factor Studies

In part one, we go through Jeff Ferguson’s long history in search marketing. In part two, we pick up with him starting his own agency. Then in part three we talk about the state of SEO studies.
In short, he goes off on his rant on SEO studies done on ranking factors and other areas. In short, he was not a fan of those studies and he wrote a lot about how they were done wrong. He wasn’t saying the intent was wrong, the companies that made these studies really wanted to help. But doing ranking factor studies are just too hard and really hard to prove.
Of course, it ruffled a lot of feathers in the SEO community. But he goes through more on why he did what he did and what he wanted to get out of it.
You can learn more about Jeff Ferguson at Amplitude Digital and follow him on Twitter @CountXero.
You can subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss the next vlog where I interviews. I do have a nice lineup of interviews scheduled with SEOs and SEMS, many of which you don’t want to miss – and I promise to continue to make these vlogs better over time. If you want to be interviewed, please fill out this form with your details.
Forum discussion at YouTube.
SEARCHENGINES
Apple Maps Street View Camera Backpack

Here is a photo of some guy walking around Israel with an Apple Maps street view backpack. It was captured by Hillel Fuld the other day and posted on Twitter.
Google has its own street view backpack, which is more impressive to look at.
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
SEARCHENGINES
Google’s Internal Menu System Tracks Googlers Food Preferences

A Googler shared screenshots of the output from the Google internal menu system where it told her that one day she avoids salades and then she must have had some salads to correct that and the next day it say she enjoys salad. I am just amazed Google tracks the food Googlers eat and offers suggestions.
Here are those tweets embedded:
Important update.
As much as I would like to be a conspiracy theorist and assume that my tweets are being monitored, seems the initial warning was just a bug. pic.twitter.com/FRbkw6QE0g
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 23, 2022
So… I think I have two preferences set on the menu… that I like soups and salads. I think the system inverted that to things I avoid. It is now fixed. Inadvertent shaming is over.
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 24, 2022
Haha, I think it’s just “here are the menus for the day”, and it’ll show you things you might like most at the top. It’s not that fancy 🙂
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) March 24, 2022
To be clear, it doesn’t track you! You can set favorites. And there was a bug 🙂
— Lara Levin (@TheLaraxSF) February 2, 2023
This is really not a photo of the day but close enough…
This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.
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