SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: February 7, 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 confirmed some sort of issue with crawling Shopify websites, but said it is not really an issue and nothing for you to do about. Google may have pushed a search algorithm update this weekend again but the industry chatter simply does not yet support it. Google is showing more product rich results even for pages without product structured data. Google says only update the date on articles if they have been significantly changed or updated. Google is testing a new black bar panel in search that does not seem to function properly. And I posted another vlog for you to listen to.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google Fixes Shopify Crawling Issue, Calling It A Temporary Drop In Calculation
Last week, we saw reports that some Shopify sites were showing massive declines in crawling activity from Google’s Googlebot. John Mueller of Google responded this morning that this was “temporary drop in how we calculate how much we can crawl” adding these sites are in a “good state” and there is nothing to worry about. - Some Google Algorithm Tracking Tools Are Reporting An Update But Results Are Mixed
Over the past couple of days, some of the Google search algorithm tracking tools were reporting large swings in volatility in the search results – thus signaling a possible Google search update. But the chatter amongst the SEO industry during that time has been super quiet, showing no signs of an update. - Google Shows More Product Rich Results For Pages Without Structured Data
Starting in mid-December, Google seemed to start showing more product rich results in the search results for many snippets even if those pages did not have product structured data on them. Brodie Clark first posted about it on January 12th (which we covered in our newsletter the day after) and Lily Ray and her co-worker, and so does Glenn Gabe posted screenshots of Google Search Console’s performance report showing the uptick in mid-December. - Google: Update Dates On Articles When You Significantly Change Existing Content
Google’s John Mueller said it only makes sense to update the date on a piece of content or article when you either “write something new or significantly change something existing.” He said this on Twitter and it goes along with previous advice John has given before. - Google Rolls Out Black Bar Knowledge Panels With Links That Don’t Work?
Yesterday, Brian Freiesleben and Khushal Bherwani both noticed a new design for some of the knowledge and local panels on the mobile search results. Google is showing a more sleek black bar for some of these panels. I personally can replicate it and noticed the links within the black bar do not work. - Vlog #158: Brian Wallace On Measuring The Success Of Infographics
In part one we spoke about how Brian Wallace of NowSourcing got into infographics, how it is not just about links but much more and some cool scores he had with them. In part two… - Massive Super G Logo Signage At New GooglePlex Office
Here is Peter the Greeter on his birthday, happy birthday Peter!, standing in front of a massive super G logo sign at the new GooglePlex campus.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Fun fact: we also found that placing certain shades of green and red next to each other created an unpleasant color vibration, so we introduced a very subtle gradient to the main icon to mitigate that, making the icon more acce, Elvin on Twitter
- Making a website is no easy task! @JohnMu @g33konaut & @methode chat about Steve, their theoretical #searchengine. They discuss guidelines & practices that affect website ranking. → https://t.co/Xvd, Google Search Central on Twitter
- I am passing this on to the team. For Performance Max & SSC, one thought for now is to use a conv. value rule to set a lower value for those customers (& bid to value). That couldn, AdsLiaison on Twitter
- I don’t see the inclusion of “Googlebot” in the user-agent changing in the near future. I think we’d like to keep it directly visible, even if everything else moved to client hints., John Mueller on Twitter
- To give a less sarcastic answer, there is no word count that works best for SEO. You do not do SEO by counting words. Create something awesome for your users, regardless of the number of words., John Mueller on Twitter
- Heads-up. I’m seeing more traffic from Google Lens coinciding w/Chrome adding “Search image with Google Lens” to the contextual menu (starting with Chrome 96.0.4 on 12/13). Not a ton of traffic, but a noticeable increase on 12/, Glenn Gabe on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
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
Google Search Testing New Video Layout In Search

Google may be testing a new layout for videos it displays in the Google Search results. Google is testing a new format for how the videos show in the Google Search results.
This new format shows a larger video in the listings, as opposed to a smaller thumbnail image with more details. This was spotted by Khushal Bherwani on Twitter who shared the new and old screenshots.
New video format:
Old video format:
Google has been testing and displaying larger video thumbnails for some time, as an FYI.
I am not sure which one I like more, I would have to pick I guess the smaller thumbnail?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing Event Today – Expecting ChatGPT Search Integration

I am currently in Seattle and headed to the Microsoft Campus in Redmond for an in-person press event. I decided to go, assuming it would be related to ChatGPT and Bing but Microsoft would not tell me what it was about, nor would Microsoft let us say we are going to the event. Then yesterday at 2pm, when the news broke about Google Bard (story will be here), Microsoft said we can talk about the event.
So the news is out there that there is a event, see Techmeme. The email Microsoft sent says, “Microsoft has some exciting news coming in February and we’d like to invite you to an in-person experience at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond.”
“We can’t share a lot more at this stage, but you won’t want to miss it. This invitation is for you only, but if you’re unable to attend please let us know and we’ll see if we can consider another of your teammates,” Microsoft added.
Then after the Google news came out, Microsoft sent an email saying, “In light of recent announcements, you may now acknowledge your participation in tomorrow’s briefing in Redmond, leveraging the language in the briefing invitation.”
So yea, this press event seems to be about the Bing ChatGPT solution. I am very much looking forward to seeing what Microsoft Bing has to show here and I’ll be sharing the news here, on Search Engine Land and likely will be tweeting a ton @rustybrick. So make sure to follow me on Twitter to see the latest from Bing on this news.
And we have this photo of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft with Sam Altman of OpenAI together last night:
hello from redmond! excited for the event tomorrow pic.twitter.com/b7TUr0ti42
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 6, 2023
I am expecting this to look a lot like the Bing ChatGPT interface leaks we covered earlier. Here are those screenshots:
Here is the home page screenshot that widens and enlarges the search box and says “Ask me anything”:
Here is his screenshot of the results, the answers being returned:
And here is the GIF he made of this:
Brain buzzing with all the search news and announcements this week! SEOs cannot sleep. What a time to be alive! The future is bright 🚀
— Fabrice Canel (@facan) February 7, 2023
More to come soon.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search People Cards Visible In US

Back in 2020, Google Search introduced a feature named people cards. It was only available in India but now it seems like it might be expanding, as I can now see it in the United States.
Brian Freiesleben’s card, which he created when it was first announced by spoofing his location to be in India, is now showing up as a people card for searchers in the United States. Personally, I was able to bring it up on my mobile device in New York.
Here is a screenshot he shared of this on Twitter:
He said, “I found my name now triggers a ‘people card’. This was introduced in Google India back in 2020. I spoofed my location back then to create the card and now (finally) it’s appearing.”
Glenn Gabe was able to replicate it as well:
Thanks!
Man, I have tried to kill that flickr page so many times…it pops back like a weed every time. This is new motivation to try to unlock that account and delete it haha.
— Brian Freiesleben (@type_SEO) February 3, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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