SEARCHENGINES
Google I/O 2022 Search Related Announcements
I know you are all super busy, so let me quickly let you scan through all the search related announcements that Google announced at Google I/O yesterday. From multisearch near me, immersive map views, Google Translate & Lens expansion, image skin tons and schema, My Ad Center, personal information tool, about this result expansion, Android and so much more.
I will skip most of the event, highlighting the search related topics only below. But I will also embed the keynote, so you can watch it below.
I’ll make this as easy to consume by just embedding tweets that share the news in a super fast and digestible way:
Google’s Mission – Snore…
Google always has to lead off about making knowledge more accessible…
.@SundarPichai shares how we’re continuing to advance Google’s mission: By turning information into knowledge, and advancing computing to make that knowledge accessible to the world, no matter where you are. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/qmymBTNItR
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Multisearch Near Me
This takes the new Multisearch feature, searching with images and text at the same time, but brings it to local:
We recently launched multisearch in the Google app, which lets you search by taking a photo and asking a question at the same time. Later this year, you’ll be able to take a picture or screenshot and add “near me” to get local results. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/F2kl0m9nYt
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Scene Exploration
You can scan an area and Google Lens will stitch it together to overlay search information:
In the future, you’ll be able to pan your camera, ask a question and see relevant information overlaid in the context of the world around you. It’s like a supercharged CTRL+F for the real world. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/EeSse3Dmtf
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Immersive View in Google Maps
This is pretty cool, Google will stitch together photos to give you this new immersive view – coming later to a Google Maps near you:
Immersive view in @GoogleMaps is a new way to experience what a neighborhood, landmark, restaurant and venue will be like — and even feel like you’re right there. It uses advances in computer vision and AI to fuse together billions of Street View images. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/DgJwwE03rQ
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Skin Tone Google Image Search
A new way to filter based on skin tone in Google Images, with schema support:
Now for makeup queries in Google Images, like “everyday eyeshadow” and “bridal makeup looks,” you’ll find a new way to filter by relevant skin tones to find more helpful results. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/Y8t0oXtoqv
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
In the coming months, we’ll also be working on a way for content creators and online businesses to label their imagery so that search engines and other platforms can easily understand skin tone, hair color and hair texture in images. Learn more. #GoogleIO https://t.co/8UToQLc0yr
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) May 11, 2022
Google My Ad Center
More ways for searchers to manage their ad privacy…
Later this year, we’ll launch My Ad Center. You’ll be able to easily manage your ads privacy settings and even choose to see ads from categories or brands you like — giving you more control over the ads you see across YouTube, Search and Discover. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/jWNog7xsrS
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Google Translate Gains 24 Languages
More languages have been added to Google Translate with new ML to help:
We’re adding 24 new languages to Google Translate — the first using a breakthrough machine learning approach called Zero-Shot Machine Translation, where the model learns a new language without ever seeing a direct translation of it. #GoogleIO https://t.co/5Imnj6ff1E
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Google Lens is Popular
And it really should be popular and growing, Google Lens is just that impressive:
Google Lens helps you search what you see. It’s now used over 8 billion times a month, which is nearly a 3X increase since last year. 🤯 #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/7qENSkvJuM
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Google Assistant More Natural
Saying #HeyGoogle or worrying about the “right” way to ask something can feel unnatural. That’s why we’re improving how Assistant understands you, letting you speak more naturally — like how you’d talk to a friend. Learn more ↓ #GoogleIO https://t.co/YviVJIxhYq
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Personal Information Removal Tool
You can use a form to remove personal information from Google Search now but a new tool should make it easier.
Soon, a new tool will let you more easily request the removal of Google Search results containing your contact details — such as your home address, phone number and email address. This feature will be available in the Google app and on individual Google Search results. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/aoMyLmVdpo
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
About This Result in the Google App on Your Site
I am not sure I like Google overlaying their about this result on your site, but it is the Google App doing this:
To help you evaluate the reliability of information, you’ll soon be able to find relevant context about any website with just one tap in the Google App — such as the site description, what they say about themselves and what others say about them. #GoogleIO pic.twitter.com/jPA1XI9SpY
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Google made it sound like this feature is used a lot, but it is a tiny fraction of all searches:
About this result used 1.6 billion times pic.twitter.com/IXR2LoLTp1
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 11, 2022
Google AR Future
Google hinted at AR features coming, maybe a new version of Google Glass?
Augmented reality can break down communication barriers – and help us better understand each other by making language visible. Watch what happens when we bring technologies like transcription and translation to your line of sight. #GoogleIO ↓ pic.twitter.com/ZLhd4BWPGh
— Google (@Google) May 11, 2022
Google’s SVP Summary
Here is how Prabhakar Raghavan, Senior Vice President at Google, where he is responsible for Google Search, Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce, and Payments products, summed up the search related announcements at Google I/O 2022:
You’ll have more natural, intuitive experiences across our products, from a more immersive & 3D Google Maps (less like a paper map on a phone!)… to an Assistant that really understands you (umms and ahhs included!)… to much, much more. (2/4)
— Prabhakar Raghavan (@WittedNote) May 11, 2022
TL;DR: we believe that the way you search shouldn’t be constrained to typing keywords into a search box… we’re reimagining what it means to search again, so you can ✨search any way, and anywhere✨ (4/4)
— Prabhakar Raghavan (@WittedNote) May 11, 2022
All of Google’s I/O related announcements can be found in this section in the Google blog.
Coming up later today, here is what is available for Search and Ads:
It is amazing how few sessions Google I/O has on Google Search (3) and Google Ads (2) https://t.co/YGkDjyhLbH pic.twitter.com/OjaktAsIWc
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) May 11, 2022
Here is the keynote video:
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Microsoft Bing Says The lastmod Tag In XML Sitemap File Is Critical

Microsoft Bing posted a new blog post saying “for XML sitemaps, one of the most critical tags you can include in your sitemap is the “lastmod” tag.” And it will become even more critical as Bing is reworking its crawl scheduling stack to rely more on this lastmod field.
Yes, by June, the way Bing decides what to crawl will be more dependent on the lastmod tag. Fabrice Canel from Microsoft wrote, “we are revamping our crawl scheduling stack to better utilize the information provided by the “lastmod” tag in sitemaps.” This is being done so it can “enhance” the “crawl efficiency by reducing unnecessary crawling of unchanged content and prioritizing recently updated content.”
“We have already begun implementing these changes on a limited scale and plan to fully roll them out by June,” he added.
So making sure your lastmod date is accurate is now even more important. It should be the last time you modified the URL, not the time the URL was first published and not the time the XML sitemap file was generated. In fact, that is the biggest issue Bing found with the field, that it often just shows the date the XML sitemap file was generated and not the date the page of the URL was last modified.
Here are some data points Bing put together on XML sitemaps:
- 58% of hosts have at least one XML sitemap.
- 84% of these sitemaps have a lastmod attribute set.
- 79% have lastmod values correct.
- 18% have lastmod values not correctly set.
- 3% has lastmod values for only some of the URLs.
- 16% of these sitemaps don’t have a lastmod attribute set.
- 42% of hosts don’t have one XML sitemap
Oh, Bing still wants you to use the IndexNow protocol for the most efficient crawl solution but if you don’t – make sure your lastmod date is accurate.
In terms of Google, in 2015 Google said they don’t really use the lastmod date but then changed that in 2020 they said they do. The current Google documentation says, “Google uses the lastmod value if it’s consistently and verifiably (for example by comparing to the last modification of the page) accurate.”
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Console Video Indexing Report Adds Impressions & Sitemap Filters

Google has updated the video indexing report within Google Search Console to add impression data and a way to filter the report by your available sitemaps.
As a reminder, the video indexing report went fully live in August 2022 after Google started to slowly roll out the video index report within Google Search Console earlier in 2022.
Google added two new features to the report; impression data and a sitemap filter. Here is a GIF of these two features:
You can now overlay the impressions your indexed videos saw directly in this report. Google said, “the impressions are aggregated by page which means that if the same page appears multiple times in a single search result page (or a single Discover session), then we consider each appearance as an impression.”
Here is what it looks like:
Google added, “The Search performance report groups video search appearances by property, not by URL, which means that if multiple pages show in a search results, we’ll count only one impression. As a result, the Search performance report can show lower impression counts than the Video page indexing report.”
The sitemap filter is a nice addition also, so you can see what videos you submitted via your sitemaps compared to what Google really indexed. Google said, “To help you focus on the video pages that matter most to you, you can now filter the Video indexing report to show only video pages that are present in a selected sitemap. The filter applies to all the report features: the chart, chart totals, issue list, and exports.”
Here is a screenshot of that:
You also see a section in the sitemaps location for discovered videos:
Hi @JohnMu @rustybrick
“Discovered Video” Tab in Google search console is it something new? pic.twitter.com/hu0rcEGqKW— Jaydip Pancholi (@jaydip_ahir_333) February 2, 2023
Google Search Console Video indexing report has been also added to the Indexing>Sitemaps section.
now we can easily navigate & monitor page indexing & video indexing from the sitemap.
CC:- @glenngabe @rustybrick #SEO #GoogleSearch pic.twitter.com/NT18IE8O2f
— Vijay Chauhan 📈 (@VijayChauhanSEO) February 2, 2023
Again, if Google sees videos on your site, Google will display the new “Video indexing report” on the left navigation bar in the coverage section of Google Search Console. The report shows the status of video indexing on your site. It helps you answer the following questions:
- In how many pages has Google identified a video?
- Which videos were indexed successfully?
- What are the issues preventing videos from being indexed?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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