SEARCHENGINES

Google Discover Impacted By The Helpful Content Update Since October 2022

Published

9 months ago

March 8, 2023

A few weeks ago, I reported that Google has updated its help documentation to specify that Google Discover visibility can be impacted not just by the core updates but also specifically by the helpful content update. I asked Google when this changed and after flip-flopping a bit on the answer, Danny Sullivan of Google said this changed around October 2022.

October 2022 is a bit weird in terms of timing being that this was between helpful content system updates. We had the August 2022 helpful content update that finished rolling out on September 9, 2022 and then we had the December 2022 helpful content update that started on December 6, 2022.

I guess sometime in October Google pushed a more minor update to say, let the helpful content update impact Google Discover. I guess a new helpful content update did not need to be pushed for this to happen, but I assume something was tweaked with Google Discover to make this happen that was not announced – not that Google has to announce everything for us…

Going back to the flip-flop… Danny Sullivan, after first saying the help document was incorrect, that the helpful content update did not impact Google Discover visibility, said last night that he has a correction, it does. And he added that this change happened in October 2022.

Danny wrote on Mastodon, “Sorry for the confusion over this. Did more checking. We do indeed use it and have done so since last October.” So he is saying that after checking one more time, (1) Google Discover is impacted by the helpful content update and (2) he got back to me on when this changed, and this changed in October 2022.

Then Danny went on to say, “but it’s a very light use.” Because of that he added, “so we’re leaving the page as is, but as I also said, we won’t be confirming each search signal used by Discover.” This is the page that says The system generates a site-wide signal that we consider among many other signals for use in Google Search (which includes Discover).”

Danny also referenced this generic advice, “If you want to be successful with Discover, which is part of Search, it makes sense to pay attention to the things that are helpful with Search.”

So there you have it:

(1) Google Discover is impacted by the helpful content update.

(2) This all began in October 2022.

Forum discussion at Mastodon.

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Google Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

Published

6 days ago

December 3, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

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.

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

Published

1 week ago

December 3, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

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.

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

Published

1 week ago

December 2, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

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:

Google Discover Old Stories Follow