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Google Bard Won’t Link To Sources Too Often

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Bot Classrooms Cheating Google

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.”

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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:

click for full size

No citations with the default response from Google Bard.

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But Bing, it gives 15 links to 15 different sources:

click for full size

To be fair, if I work hard, and go to draft two, I get some citations from Google Bard:

click for full size

I posted about this on Twitter and here is some of the response and reaction to Google’s FAQ statement on the citation bit:

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. “

So we will see. Until now, prepare to be disappointed with any little traffic you might see from Google Bard.

Forum discussion at Twitter.



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Google’s Search Liaison Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

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Yoda Google

Google is urging site owners and SEOs to have patience as the Google March 2024 core update continues to roll out over the coming weeks. Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said on X to wait for the update to complete before deciding on what changes you may want to make.

He wrote, “I would let the update complete before deciding if there are any fundamental changes you might want to make.” In fact, he said, “There might not be any to do at all,” and maybe whatever ranking declines you are seeing now won’t be there when the update is done rolling out.

As a reminder, the March 2024 core update started officially on March 5th, then we first saw ranking shifts on March 8th and 9th, then some reversals on March 12th and then more movement on March 15th. The update can take a full month to roll out, so it may go into April 2024.

Sullivan then went into what other changes or factors may lead to a site seeing less search visibility and traffic.

Your site seems clean and nice. Going through the site, I see [steak pie] as one of your featured recipes. You’re in the carousel and second in web links for that. That’s a pretty solid sign that we like your content.

If you were previously first, trying to move up from second by doing a lot of technical and content stuff wouldn’t be something I’d recommend. Second is super successful. Rankings can also change for various reasons, so you might move back up.

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You might also look to see if there’s any seasonal change. IE: instead of looking at rankings, look at your traffic. If it was higher previously, what for? Perhaps you had some seasonal recipes a few months ago that people are looking for less. We have a page about debugging traffic drops that talks about seasonality here.

Here are those posts within context:

Please be kind in your responses.

Forum discussion at X.

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Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More

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Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More


For the original iTunes version, click here.

This past weekend (a week ago) we saw the first ranking volatility likely from the Google March 2024 core update. We also some saw possible reversals or recoveries a few days later. Then today, Friday, March 15th, I am seeing more ranking volatility likely related to the core and spam updates. Google posted its official FAQs for pure spam manual actions. Google has clarified its page experience and core web vitals help documentation and how it relates to rankings. Google has replaced FID with INP as a core web vital metric, as expected. Google said sites use AI for some articles but don’t specify which are the lowest quality pages. Google explains that double down on AI content may be a bad idea now. John Mueller’s site dropped out of the Google index this week, no joke. Bing Webmaster Tools may provide up to 24 months of data. Bing Webmaster Tools’s new top SEO insights report can tell you if you have inadequate links. Bingbot now supports Brotli compression. Google Top Stories has this “more context” section written by AI. Google image search is testing like buttons. Google Local panels are testing numerous interface changes. Google local reviews can show photos related to reviews and related photos to photos. Google is testing placing website links next to hotels and restaurants. Google Business Profiles shows services with book now buttons. Google Merchant Center Product Studio released themed templates, with the first being for St. Patrick’s Day. Microsoft Advertising is testing a new advertising console. Microsoft Copilot is now using GPT-4 Turbo. Copilot is now in that Microsoft Advertising console. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: Wix Studio lets digital marketing agencies get all of the benefits Wix has to offer from best-in-class SEO capabilities to 99% up-time with the added value of an extensive client and team management system baked right into the platform.

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Daily Search Forum Recap: March 15, 2024

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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.


We’re seeing more ranking fluctuations likely related to the Google March core and spam updates. Google Merchant Center Product Studio has new AI generated themed templates, one ready for St. Patrick’s Day. Google Image search is testing thumbs up like buttons. Google tests dishes near me. Google has trending icons in the people also search for section. Plus, I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:


  • Google March 2024 Core & Spam Update Movement Today


    Today is day 10 of the Google March 2024 core update rollout and Google March 2024 spam update. We believe we saw the core update touch down on March 8th and 9th and some possible recoveries or fluctuations on March 12th. Now I see more signs of Google search ranking volatility likely related to the core and spam updates today.

  • Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More


    This past weekend (a week ago) we saw the first ranking volatility likely from the Google March 2024 core update. We also some saw possible reversals or recoveries a few days later. Then today, Friday, March 15th, I am seeing more ranking volatility likely related to the core and spam updates. Google posted….

  • Google Merchant Center Product Studio With Themed Templates Including St. Patrick’s Day


    Google Merchant Center has added new themed templates to the Product Studio. The new theme was for St. Patrick’s Day, which is coming up this Sunday. But Google will soon add Easter, Spring, and Mother’s Day themed templates to the Product Studio as well.


  • Google Image Search Results Testing Like Button


    Google seems to be testing a like, thumbs-up, button on image search results. The thumbs-up icon is near the share and save button and below the image, description and visit button.

  • Google Search Dishes Nearby Carousel


    Have you seen the “dishes nearby” carousel in the mobile Google Search results? I am not 100% sure if it is new, but I don’t think I’ve covered it before. But Google will show dishes served by nearby restaurants in a carousel interface.



  • Google People Also Search For Trending Icons


    Google is placing trending icons on some of the people also search for people in the knowledge panel. We’ve seen various forms of this and I don’t think this is specifically new, but I don’t think I covered this specific example.



  • Wall Of Superstars At Google


    Here is a photo from the Google Hong Kong office of a wall that says “Superstars at Google” and it then shows photos, names and descriptions of specific Googlers.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

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PPC

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.



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