SEARCHENGINES
Glenn Gabe On Google Broad Core Updates

In part one with Glenn Gabe, we talk about Bing chat and Google Bard and also the use of AI-generated content, in part two we dig more into E-E-A-T and how AI tools may replace us all. Now we move into Google broad core updates.
Glenn actually called these updates Phantom updates before Google called them anything. Glenn does a lot of work around these broad core updates, and he is probably the most respected person in this space.
Glenn is very sensitive on social media when it comes to people belittling these broad core updates. These updates can sometimes wipe businesses out, lay off employees and see massive declines in income. Many of these companies did not mean to do anything wrong. So he has to have hard conversations with these companies because these are hard times for many of them.
CNBC even cited Glenn Gabe when tons of sites were hit hard by this. It was a wild time. We then briefly spoke about another broad core update that Google refused to confirm, which we called the Medic update.
Glenn said when it comes to recoveries after these core updates, you can sometimes recover, sometimes do better, and sometimes never fully recover. But the hard part is when he has to tell customers to cut their ads on their site and show less revenue-generating ads, that is a hard conversation to have. We spoke about what happens when these core updates become real-time, what happens then. Right now, Google cannot do it in real-time, Glenn said based on speaking with Paul Haahr at Google but one day it might come. But Penguin went real time and Panda became part of the core algorithm, Glenn said it went away, which it did – i.e. Coati.
Part two is coming soon, but for now, you can learn more about Glenn Gabe on Twitter at @glenngabe or on LinkedIn.
You can subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss the next vlog where I interviews. I do have a nice lineup of interviews scheduled with SEOs and SEMS, many of which you don’t want to miss – and I promise to continue to make these vlogs better over time. If you want to be interviewed, please fill out this form with your details.
Forum discussion at YouTube.
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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