SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: January 14, 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.
IndexNow is now co-sharing URLs with those who participate in the protocol, which means if you push a URL to IndexNow, both Microsoft Bing and Yandex get it immediately. Microsoft Bing is also testing showing the related searches on the left bar. There was a bug with a chat feature in Shopify that resulted in Google Search showing (1) in the titles of the search results – it should go away over time. Google Ads versatile text ads is another name for responsive search ads? And a poll shows 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Finally, I posted my weekly SEO video recap, I have a bit more energy in this one, it might be worth listening to on YouTube or your favorite podcast player.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google 1/11 Search Algorithm Update, Manual Actions Delayed, Core Update Specifics & Microsoft Bing IndexNow News
We had our first unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update of the 2022 year… - IndexNow Now Sharing URLs Between Search Engines & IndexNow API
When IndexNow was first announced by Microsoft Bing in October, it was not yet at a point where the participating search engines we co-sharing URLs – but that is no longer the case. Participating IndexNow search engines, which is still just Microsoft Bing and Yandex, are now co-sharing URLs. - Microsoft Bing Tests Related Searches On Left
Microsoft Bing is testing placing the related searches list on the left side of the search results page. Normally, Microsoft places these related searches on the right side of the Bing search results page. - Google Search Showing (1) In Shopify Websites Titles
Most SEOs often look at titles tags when browsing web sites, I mean, I do, while the average person does not. So you’ve probably seen numbers in the tab bar representing an unread direct message count or chat request. Well, Shopify sites using chat-bot script was adding a 1 to the titles of pages and that is what Google has been indexing. - Poll: 90% Of SEOs Are Vaccinated
A Twitter poll with over 1,320 votes shows that 90% of SEOs are vaccinated. Well, at least 90% of the SEOs who took the poll are vaccinated. Although, I’d think that 90% figure is probably accurate across the industry. - Google Ads Versatile Text Ads = Responsive Search Ads?
Steve Plimmer posted a screenshot from the Google Ads console’s change history log showing how Google has named the RSAs, response search ads, versatile text ads. It makes you wonder if Google will rename RSA responsive search ads to VTA versatile text ads or if this is just how Google originally named it internally and forgo to remove some references? - Doogler Playing With Android Plush Toy At Google
Here is a screenshot from a video of a Doogler, Google dog, playing with an Android plush toy at the Google office. This is from the GooglePlex, the Mountain View, Google headquarters. It looks like
Other Great Search Threads:
- Google trends data on shopping searches through the pandemic. https://t.co/bmRIhMLZpy, Alan Kent on Twitter
- Of course not, if you’re providing something of unique, compelling, and high-quality, which adds significant value to the web. You may have seen ot, John Mueller on Twitter
- Do documentation inconsistencies cause distrust in SEOs? Does context matter when it comes to automation, tools and rules? @g33konaut and @iPullRank sit down to discuss that and more on episode 3 of SEO &, Google Search Central on Twitter
- Google is again testing the removal of the URL and breadcrumbs for indented results. This test first appeared last month and is out in force today. As someone who uses the breadcrumbs as a prompt, this test is disorientating., Brodie Clark on Twitter
- Sure, you can make a new site, and it can become popular over time too., John Mueller on Twitter
- This is a pretty old-school hack — I’d ignore it. If you want to do more, you can try to contact the site owner or hoster to encourage them to fix it / take the site down., John Mueller on Twitter
- URLs are just identifiers to us – you can use whichever setup you like, as long as it’s a unique, crawlable URL., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
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, 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 Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

Hanukkah (aka Chanukah) starts this coming Thursday night, December 7th. Google has added its Hanukkah decorations to the Google Search results interface to celebrate. Google does this every year and I expect to see the same rollout in the coming weeks for Christmas and Kawanzaa but for now, since Chanukah is in the coming days, we have the Hanukkah decorations live at Google Search.
Here is a screenshot of the Chanukah decorations as they look like on the mobile search results.
You can see it yourself by searching on Google for [chanukah], [hanukkah], but not yet [חֲנוּכָּה] or other spelling variations yet but it should soon. It looks better on mobile than it does on desktop results.
To see the past, the 2023 decorations, 2021 decorations, 2020 Chanukah decorations, 2019 Google holiday decorations, the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and so on.
Happy Chanukah, everyone!
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

Google seems to be testing a Google Pay Accepted label or icon in the Google search results. This label has the super G logo followed by the words “Pay accepted” words next to search result snippets that support Google Pay and notate such in their structured data.
This was first spotted by Khushal Bherwani who shared some screenshots of this on X – here is one:
Here are some more screenshots:
Here is test and without test window for same query. pic.twitter.com/n9cYWBOsro
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) October 20, 2023
Brodie Clark also posted some screenshots after on X:
In continuation from the test from October, Google is now testing out a new Google Pay label associated with organic results. Last month, Google was testing Pay Accepted text, with this month changing it to Pay encrypted checkout. More details: https://t.co/MvFNoPmMDR pic.twitter.com/WDVVc4RbTO
— SERPs Up 🌊 (@SERPalerts) November 30, 2023
I tried to replicate this but I came up short.
This is not the first time Google had similar icons like this in its search results.
Forum discussion at X.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

Typically, Google Discover shows content that is less than a day old, but it can show content that is weeks, months, or even years old. However, typically, Google will show more recent content in the Discover feed. Well, that may have changed with the new Google follow feature.
Glenn Gabe, who is a very active Google Discover user, noticed that since the Follow feature rolled out, he has been seeing content that is weeks and months old way more often than before the follow feature rolled out. Glenn wrote on X that “this could also be playing a role. i.e. Google isn’t providing as much recent content, but instead, focusing on providing targeted content based on the topics you are following.”
It makes sense that if you follow a specific topic and if Google Discover only shows the most authoritative types of content, it might be hard for Google to find new content on that topic. So it does make sense that Google may show older content more often for that specific topic you follow.
Here are screenshots Glenn shared:
Have you noticed this in your Discover feed?
Forum discussion at X.
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