SEARCHENGINES
Expansion, Machine Learning & Core Updates

Google’s John Mueller was asked a series of questions around the product reviews update on last Friday’s video hangout. In short, it will expand to other languages and countries, it probably does use machine learning and eventually it might be incorporated into the larger core updates.
As a reminder, we had two product reviews updates in 2021, one in April 2021 and the other in December 2021.
These series of questions came up at the 46:21 mark in this video, here it is if you want to play it, otherwise the transcript is below:
Expanding The Product Reviews Update
John basically said Google does plan to expand the product reviews update beyond just English, as we covered before – but he has no timeline for when that might happen.
Here is what was said:
AUDIENCE: So I have a few questions about product reviews, which is my domain. So I noticed that recently you made some moves in the US to promote product reviews, where there were real testing instead of just comparison. Do you have any time estimates of when we could expect these upgrades to be, like, in the market stack in French or German?
JOHN MUELLER: I don’t know, with most things, it’s something, where we tend not to pre-announce them. So it’s hard to kind of say ahead of time. And for some of these updates, the team moves very fast in kind of, like, rolling things out globally. And for other types of updates, it’s very slow. And sometimes there are also policy and legal reasons kind of that make things a little bit harder. So it’s always very tricky to give an estimate.
Re: the Product Reviews Update expanding to other languages Via @johnmu: We have nothing to pre-announce. For some updates, the team works fast to roll things out to other languages. For others, it’s slower. Policy/legal reasons can also impact things: https://t.co/RRk1Q67bzW pic.twitter.com/KTisK4pWDr
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 16, 2022
Machine Learning & Product Reviews Update
Then he was asked if the product reviews update uses human input or machine learning? John basically said no to human input but likely to machine learning. John said this takes an “algorithmic approach” and not a human editing approach, like most of what Google does. He isn’t sure if this specific update uses machine learning, but he said it probably does “to some extent.”
Here is what was said:
AUDIENCE: I’m curious to just learn a little more in general how could Google train, like, an algorithm to understand where there were real testing or not. Is it machine learning, or is it also human reviewers?
JOHN MUELLER: For Search, for these kind of general ranking updates, it’s not something, where we would have human reviewers in the loop, because there’s just so much content out there. We can’t review it all. And a lot of times, we also don’t have a clear yes or no understanding, where someone can go through a website and say, oh, this page is good. This page is bad. It’s just not scalable.
So these are all essentially algorithmic approaches that we take. And we do use a lot of machine learning. Whether we use that for this particular update, I don’t know. My guess is probably also, at least to some extent. But it’s hard to say which exact technology was used for which update.
More: Is Google using machine learning to train algos for the PRU? Via @johnmu: For updates like this, it’s not something where human reviewers would be in the loop. And we do use a lot of machine learning overall, so it’s probably used to some extent: https://t.co/7wx6l8IPw5 pic.twitter.com/0GFLS92Rwv
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 16, 2022
Core Updates & Product Reviews Update
Finally, he asked if eventually will the product reviews update be incorporated into the core update like some other algorithms have been in the past. John said maybe, it depends on a lot of things. He said it also depends on how you define core algorithms.
This is what was said:
AUDIENCE: OK, and do you plan to integrate this kind of understanding of a web page into the core Google algorithm?
JOHN MUELLER: I mean, it’s always tricky to define what is a part of the core update– the core algorithm. So I don’t think I have an answer for that. Because usually, what happens is when we see that some algorithm is working really well, then we’ll kind of like just keep using that for a longer period of time. And at some point, you could say, well, it’s a part of the core algorithm, even if it’s not in a file that is called Core Algorithm or something like that.
And more: Will the PRU be baked into Google’s core ranking algo? Via @johnmu: It’s tricky to define the “core algo”. If an algorithm works very well, we might continue using it for a long time. So you could say it’s part of the “core algo” at that point https://t.co/TXPnwJmGny pic.twitter.com/j6AjNpgakA
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 16, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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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