SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: October 3, 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 is suspending a lot more businesses in Google Business Profiles now. Google also dropped the health and safety attributes from Business Profiles. Google Shopping is testing a chat feature in the product results. Google has a more hotels grid layout. I posted the big October Google webmaster monthly recap. And part two with Maggie Humphrey on my vlog is up, it is about content development for franchises.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- October 2022 Google Webmaster Report
Talk about a busy month, we didn’t just have one or two confirmed updates this past month – we had three! We had the helpful content update finish rolling out on September 9th, we then had the September 2022 core update kick off on the 12t, and then the September 2022 product reviews update on the 20th. - Google Business Profile Suspensions Spiking
There seems to be a much higher level of Google Business Profiles suspended in the past couple of weeks than one would typically see. So a higher number of businesses set up in Google Maps are being suspended and removed from the Google local search results. - Google Business Profiles Removes Health & Safety Attributes
In September 2020, Google added a new section for “health and safety” attributes to Google Business Profiles (formerly Google My Business). Those remained as an option until last week, Google removed those health and safety attributes late last week. - Google Shopping Chat Feature On Product Results
Google Shopping seems to be testing or maybe has launched a new chat feature in the product search results. I personally cannot replicate this at the time I am writing this but Saad AK spotted this and posted a screenshot on Twitter. - Google Search “More Hotels” Grid Layout
Google Search now has a grid layout option labeled “more hotels.” This is even when Google shows the hotel listings sections, other hotel listings, explore more hotels, and now also this “more hotels” four grid layout. - Vlog #191: Marguarite Humphrey On Content Development For Franchises
We learned about Maggie Humphrey in part one and what she did while working at DAC and in part two, we dig a bit more into content development strategies for franchises. - Google Pier 57 Event With Large Games
Google had another event at the new Pier 57 building and this one had massive games at them. Including a massive chess board, connect four, corn hole game and more.
Other Great Search Threads:
- 1000s of sitemaps submitted to search console from unused subdomains, Reddit
- Google Local Services Ads is sending out a new email on how to “attract more potential customers”.. In their words, this is “insulting & infuriating” to advertisers whose ads will not display because Google *refuses* to remove, Len on Twitter
- What would you do differently if you started a new website? How would you make sure that users return on their own?, John Mueller on Twitter
- For page experience & the core web vitals we use real user data. Not all sites have enough data-points to provide useful data there. In those cases, do lab tests, or implem, John Mueller on Twitter
- We love high-quality, unique, compelling, helpful content. There are some fantastic sites with affilia, 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
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
Google Bard Won’t Link To Sources Too Often

As you know, we’ve been playing with Google Bard, it just started to roll out a couple of days ago. Early on, we were disappointed thus far with how limited it seemed and more so, how it rarely linked to sources and content creators. Now, Google got back to us on why this is the case.
Google added a few topics to the Bard FAQs, including “How and when does Bard cite sources in its responses?” Let me quote what it says:
Bard, like some other standalone LLM experiences, is intended to generate original content and not replicate existing content at length. We’ve designed our systems to limit the chances of this occurring, and we will continue to improve how these systems function. If Bard does directly quote at length from a webpage, it cites that page.
Bard was built to be a creative and helpful collaborator—it works well in creative tasks like helping you write an email or brainstorm ideas for a birthday party. We see it as a complementary experience to Google Search. That’s why we added the “Google It” button to Bard, so people can easily move from Bard to explore information from across the web.
Bard is an experiment, and we’ll use its launch as an opportunity to learn, iterate, and improve the experience as we get feedback from a range of stakeholders including people like you, publishers, creators, and more.
So since Bard “generates original content and not replicate existing content at length,” Google does not feel the need to cite sources? Bard will however cite sources and link to them if Bard “directly quotes at length from a webpage.”
Instead, Google wants you to go from Bard to Google with the “Google It”, “so people can easily move from Bard to explore information from across the web.” So click on links from Google Search, do not click on links from Bard, too often.
But things with Bard are early and may change, “Bard is an experiment, and we’ll use its launch as an opportunity to learn, iterate, and improve the experience as we get feedback from a range of stakeholders including people like you, publishers, creators, and more.”
Honestly, I am shocked, I did not think Google would launch Bard without citing and linking to sources as much as and as well as Bing Chat does. Even Gary Illyes from Google hinted publishers would be okay with it.
Let me show some examples (click on the images to enlarge).
Google Bard on “Who is Barry Schwartz?” – this is not me, this is the famous Barry Schwartz, by the way:
No citations with the default response from Google Bard.
But Bing, it gives 15 links to 15 different sources:
To be fair, if I work hard, and go to draft two, I get some citations from Google Bard:
I posted about this on Twitter and here is some of the response and reaction to Google’s FAQ statement on the citation bit:
What a joke. Absolutely brazen content theft.
— Don Caldwell 🦑 (@DonCald) March 22, 2023
Meanwhile, Google could care less: https://t.co/QQmZ1jA8WK
— Rutledge Daugette (@TheRealRutledge) March 22, 2023
A positive perspective: Bard is bound to say weird things and give inaccurate information. If that’s the case, you won’t necessarily want your brand up there co-signing certain conversations or answers.
— dog excited to meet pluto (@dogmeetpluto) March 22, 2023
That’s not great for site owners.
I’ve also seen a number of people share Bard responses that are questionable or outright wrong. Responses should be treated like discussing a topic with a questionably-informed internet rando, rather than a factual response if there’s no source.— Peggy K (@PeggyKTC) March 22, 2023
Uggh. No/Minimal citations is a big negative for me. (both as a creator, and potential user of Bard)
— ElizabethH (@ElizabethH15) March 22, 2023
IMHO it’s impossible to overstate what an enormous problem this is for publishers. If citations are not prevalent and prominent, publishers should be able to opt out of being used in training data without it having any affect on SEO. And every publisher should opt out.
— Michael Magnuson (@mdmagnuson) March 22, 2023
To be honest, the user in me prefers Bard’s UI/UX compared to Bing Chat.
The SEO in me hates the lack of sources, but the way Bing Chat has them incorporated just looks a bit naff.
— Chloe Ivy Rose (@chloeivyroseseo) March 22, 2023
That’s a massive miscalculation on their side, it’s the wrong result that they will need to address
— @[email protected] (@davidiwanow) March 22, 2023
I mean this section is *interesting*…
“For now, Google Bard likely won’t be sending a lot of traffic to the web or websites.”And likely a challenge for anyone trying to do research.
— Crystal Carter (she/her) (@CrystalontheWeb) March 22, 2023
I actually think #Bard could work very well for local if Google was willing to include URLs, use more its local knowledge graph and offer Maps links. pic.twitter.com/YZLB1DrY3u
— Greg Sterling 🇺🇦 (@gsterling) March 22, 2023
The same thought I had when started playing with it https://t.co/RllWsaQ9KQ
— Gianluca Fiorelli (@gfiorelli1) March 22, 2023
One shimmer of hope is that if and when Bard is integrated some how into Google Search, those integrations you will see more prominent links to content creators. Via the WSJ, “Sissie Hsiao, a vice president in charge of Google Assistant, said the company “is deeply committed in supporting a healthy and vibrant content ecosystem” and “will be welcoming conversations with stakeholders.” She said when AI tools are integrated into search the company will give priority to sending valuable traffic to content creators. “
Good to hear from Google’s Sissie Hsiao about Bard for Search + Citations -> “She said when AI tools are integrated into search, the company will give priority to sending valuable traffic to content creators.” https://t.co/K3U82vtAu6 pic.twitter.com/xWbRl7SLRs
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) March 22, 2023
So we will see. Until now, prepare to be disappointed with any little traffic you might see from Google Bard.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing’s CEO Says Google Bard Is Pretty Far Behind Bing Chat

Mikhail Parakhin, the current CEO of Bing at Microsoft and former CTO at Yandex said that Google Bard is “pretty far behind” compared to Bing Chat. “We learned to never underestimate Google,” he added.
Mikhail Parakhin wrote on Twitter when asked about his impressions of the Bard launch, and like many, he is a bit underwhelmed. He said, “They are pretty far behind, but it is impressive how much they were able to achieve given the low amount of compute they had and the fact that in core ML algorithms they are trailing the SOTA by, maybe, 6 months. Being “little folks”, we learned to never underestimate Google.”
Here are those tweets:
They are pretty far behind, but it is impressive how much they were able to achieve given the low amount of compute they had and the fact that in core ML algorithms they are trailing the SOTA by, maybe, 6 months. Being “little folks”, we learned to never underestimate Google.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) March 23, 2023
Not only did he say Google is “pretty far behind” when it comes to Bard, he said they also have a “low amount of compute” and their machine learning algorithm “are trailing” what Microsoft uses by about six months.
So that is what the head of Bing thinks about where Google is at right now with Bard, its answer to Bing Chat, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and other AI chat platforms.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Trying To Relax Chat Limits On Balanced Mode Before Other Bing Chat Modes

Microsoft is planning first to work on relaxing the Bing Chat limits and chat caps for the balanced mode before working on relaxing those limits on other modes, said Mikhail Parakhin, CEO of Bing.
He said this on Twitter, ” we want to keep relaxing constraints in every mode.” “Right now focusing on getting the balance of Balanced right, then you should expect some further relaxation,” he added on Twitter.
He also said Microsoft is seeing “weird spikes in time-to-first-token we don’t understand” saying they want to get these “stabilize Balanced” mode “and get the latency spikes under control first,” before doing the same for Creative and Precise chat modes.
Here are those tweets:
As I stated previously, we want to keep relaxing constraints in every mode. Right now focusing on getting the balance of Balanced right, then you should expect some further relaxation.
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) March 20, 2023
Honestly, I want the team to stabilize Balanced and get the latency spikes under control first. We get these weird spikes in time-to-first-token we don’t understand (token generation speed seems fine…).
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) March 21, 2023
I did ask Bing Chat about this, and it is going with the PR spin. 🙂
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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