SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 18, 2024
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 Search will soon show if an image is AI-generated, edited with photo editing software or taken by a camera. Google Search Console has a bug showing product snippet search appearances in the search performance report again. Google Ads announced negative keywords for PMax, new insights, expanding more AI features and more. Google Local Service Ads validation logic for bids email. Bing is testing scrollable search result snippets.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
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Google Ads Gains Negative Keywords, Insights, Reporting To PMax & Much More
Google Ads announced a number of new features and updates to the ad platform this morning at DMEXCO in Europe. These include negative keywords coming to Performance Max campaigns, new insights and reporting, expanding AI features and much more. -
Google Search To Label Images As AI Generated, Edited Or Taken With Camera
Google Search will soon label images as AI-generated, edited with photo editing software or if it was taken with a camera in the image search results. This label will be added to the about this image feature, according to The Verge who spoke to Laurie Richardson, vice president of trust and safety at Google. -
Google Search Console Product Snippets Report Surge Again, Likely A Bug
It looks like we are seeing another surge in the Google Search Console Search Performance report when you filter by the product snippets search appearance filter. We had this happen in May of this year, it was a bug that Google fixed, and now we are seeing it happen again. -
Bing Search Result Snippets That Are Scrollable
Bing now lets you scroll within a specific search result snippet. So if you are looking at a specific search result, that specific snippet, you can scroll through, until you get to the next snippet. -
Google LSAs Changes In Validation Logic For Bid Modifications
Some advertisers received an email from Google this week with the subject line, “Changes in validation logic for bid modifications.” This email was sent to Google Local Service Ads advertisers who potentially used the API for that service. -
Dancers At The Google App Summit
Here is a video of dancers, they seem hired and not Googlers, dancing at a Google event named the App Summit. I found this on Instagram and found it a bit weird but what do I know.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Add-ons is intended to be the place to access more advanced features such as custom reports, loyalty programs, and rules & supplemental data sources., AdsLiaison on X
- Bluish background when selecting items in the “People Also Search For” section, Deepak Yadav on X
- Google did some fall cleaning for its Google Search Console data anomalies page, Barry Schwartz on X
- In the UK suspected review abuse can lead to a 30 day review ban, Mike Blumenthal on X
- It’s additive. To be clear, advertiser’s data is already protected by robust security measures. But confidential matching employs newer privacy enhancing technologies – confidential computing and TEEs – and pro, AdsLiaison on X
- My latest research says no, service areas are still not a ranking factor., Darren Shaw on LinkedIn
- Tobias from @audisto did a bunch of JS rendering analysis across multiple search engines. Google Mobile uses a different pixel density, can do 10mm pixels high, and 1648 pixels in width., Mic King on X
- We’ve added a new “reasoning” focus (beta) on Perplexity for Pro users. It will use the new OpenAI o1-mini. There is no search integration yet. The model is slow, and usage is limited because of rate limits. It is good for puzzles,, Aravind Srinivas on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Google Antitrust Trial: Company Saw AdMeld as a ‘Threat’ And Bought It, DOJ Says, Bloomberg
- Google takes Chile data center plans back to square one on environmental concerns, Reuters
- In US v. Google, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan defends the DoubleClick and Admeld acquisitions, The Verge
- Trial Update, September 16: Google’s power on full display as we learn IAB Tech Lab passed on Prebid to appease their largest funder, US v Google
- Google knew advertisers were key to publisher ad tool dominance, DOJ alleges, Marketing Brew
- Google wins challenge against $1.66 billion EU antitrust fine, Reuters
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, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Daily Search Forum Recap: September 26, 2024
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 Search ranking volatility remains heated but it spiked more again in the past 24-hours. Google updated its web search spam policies. Google AI Overviews don’t really show up for branded queries, but they may in some rare cases. Google Search has this recently viewed movies activity card. Google Search tests “states in the news” and “backstory” top stories sections in Google Search.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
-
Google Search Ranking Movement Heated, Volatility Continues 9/25
Google Search still has not calmed its ranking shifts, volatility and movement. The search results remain incredibly volatile with rankings and traffic changing again in a big way over the past day or so. I know I sound like a broken record but even some of the tools are adjusting their volatility thresholds to counter the new higher volatility in the search results. -
Google Updates Web Search Spam Policies
Google has refreshed and updated its web search policies documentation. The big change is Google added more language around the site reputation abuse policy, while expanding, simplifying and clarifying other sections of its search policies. -
Google AI Overviews For Branded & Navigational Queries???
Google AI Overviews generally do not show up for branded or navigational queries. So if you are searching for a brand or company, generally, Google has not shown an AI Overview. -
Google Recently Viewed Movies Activity Card
Google now can show movies you recently viewed as an “activity card.” I am not sure if this is based on a movie you actually went to see in the theatres, watched online or just based on you clicking on movie listings within Google Search. -
Google Search: States In The News
Google Search has this newish news or top stories carousel format that Google titled “States in the news.” It shows you news or top stories from news publishers related to the query by U.S. state. -
Google Search Backstory Top Stories Section
Google Search has this news or top stories section titled “Backstory.” It comes up from political queries, maybe other news queries. -
Sundar Pichai’s Google Soccer Jersey
Here is a photo from that event where Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, was kicking a soccer ball. This photo shows him holding a custom made Google soccer jersey.
Other Great Search Threads:
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
- Early sign-ups to EU’s AI Pact include Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI — but Apple and Meta are missing, TechCrunch
- Exclusive: OpenAI to remove non-profit control and give Sam Altman equity, sources say, Reuters
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai Says Antitrust Trials Could Drag On for Many Years, Bloomberg
- Google files Brussels complaint against Microsoft cloud business, Financial Times (Sub)
- OpenAI CTO Mira Murati announces she’s leaving the company, CNBC
- OpenAI’s chief research officer has left, TechCrunch
- The AI platform shift and the opportunity ahead, Google Blog
- Why Mark Zuckerberg thinks AR glasses will replace your phone, The Verge
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, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Noindex Bug With JavaScript Pages
Google is reportedly working on fixing a bug with not being able to properly respond to a noindex directive on some JavaScript generated pages. This is happening for some React apps using Single Page Applications (SPAs) that have the noindex directive on them but Google is not picking it up and thus indexing pages that should not be indexed.
This issue was spotted by Mark Williams-Cook, the Director at Candour and Founder of AlsoAsked, a popular SEO tool. He posted about the issue on LinkedIn and said, “Here’s a screenshot of over 9,000 “noindex” pages being indexed. Adding ‘noindex’ via JS can be a solution, but it’s absolutely not reliable.”
Here is that screenshot from Google Search Console’s indexing report:
He later shared that Google is now aware of the issue and is working on fixing it. “I spoke to Googlers about this and it is a bug they are working on fixing,” he wrote.
Mark went on to explain that this is an example of a React app that has a meta “noindex” added via JavaScript, but the pages are nevertheless getting indexed.
Martin Splitt from Google did speak in the past about noindex meta and JavaScript pages and sometimes, Google does have a hard to processing them. But these days, Google shouldn’t be challenged by them. I guess in this case, Google was?
Again, I suspect in this case, Google fetched and rendered the page prior to the JavaScript executing the noindex meta data. So Googlebot didn’t see the noindex directive yet. This can happen, it is rare, but this can happen and obviously did happen. Google has warned about this before, including using JavaScript to generate structured data in some cases.
Mark’s solution was to use CloudFlare to serve the noindex directive prior to the JavaScript executing its own meta data (which is served in the HTTP header), but that was only after he found out Google was not picking up on the first solution he had. Mark wrote, “With some Single Page Applications (SPAs), it can be difficult to have control over what is shown before the JS is executed. In this instance, I managed to get the pages to set a “noindex” before JS was rendered by using Cloudflare Transform rules.”
So if you noticed this issue as well, hopefully Google will patch it up and if not, look for an alternative solution – like Mark did.
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Site Command For Image Search Not Fully Working?
It seems that Google made a change, intentionally or unintentionally, to the site command within Google Image Search. When you do a basic site command, without appending keywords to the query, then Google will return no image results.
Here is a screenshot:
I spotted this via Kunjal Chawhan on X over the weekend and pined Google about it but I did not hear back as of yet.
I did notice that when you append a query to the end of the site command, it does return results:
I suspect this is a bug but what do I know…
Forum discussion at X.
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