SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Is Broken, Outages, Indexing Issues, Pages Missing & More

Last night, Google suffered a pretty big outage with Google Search that is still lingering through this morning. It seemed to be larger than just an outage because there are tons of complaints about indexing issues, pages dropping out of the index, and super poor quality and dated search results being shown in Google this morning.
The first report I saw of the outage was from 9to5Google last night at around 9:30 pm ET, I tweeted about it then:
It’s not just you, Google Search is having issues – 9to5Google https://t.co/lw7XOpqgQn
β Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) August 9, 2022
There was a Google data center fire that seemed to have caused these issues. A Google spokesperson said “We are aware of an electrical incident that took place today at Googleβs data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, injuring three people onsite who are now being treated. The health and safety of all workers is our absolute top priority, and we are working closely with partners and local authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation and provide assistance as needed.”
Those injured should be in our thoughts and prayers and have a speedy recovery.
The outages looked like this to many searchers, although I did not see it myself:
β cuong vt hcm (@thienhung_dlu) August 9, 2022
Google is broken. pic.twitter.com/4p1OIs1bBU
β Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) August 9, 2022
But the outage seemed to have impacted more than just accessibility to Google.com and the Google Search results.
There are tons and tons of complaints about indexing issues and old pages that once ranked, not ranking anymore. Here are just some of those complaints:
Many URLs across various sites are deindexed for intended KWs OR the domains are ranking lower for other pages that reference the target query (e.g. category pages). Also, GSC is producing errors when requesting indexation. Seems widespread. cc:@rustybrick @dannysullivan @JohnMu
β Vlad Rappoport πΊπ¦ (@vladrpt) August 9, 2022
Is an indexing issue going on at the moment?
SERPS dramatically changed. I am missing many pages which I saw yesterday.
site: shows ~ -40% pages for my sites.
My US Flag is gone. πͺ @JohnMu @SEO_Suedwest @googlesearchc @searchliaison @rustybrick @dannysullivan #SEO pic.twitter.com/LMxNmTBpN0β Christian Radny (@ChrisRadny) August 9, 2022
@rustybrick Hi Barry,
Seems like the Google search algorithm is going on
Also, We are noticing some keywords are not showing on Google search as per their position and the same keyword data is showing in GSC.β nishant Gupta (@nishant76026848) August 9, 2022
we are also facing this issues
β Money Innovate (@MoneyInnovate) August 9, 2022
@googlesearchc is there an indexing issue today? A lot of people seem to complain that their sites have disappeared from results? @rustybrick maybe you know more?
β Bastiir (@BastiirMatt) August 9, 2022
Google is aware and John Mueller of Google thinks things will soon start to fix itself as Google recovers:
I’d keep an eye on it today, and please let me know if it doesn’t look like the main URLs are settling down again. (We don’t index everything, so I’d focus on the important URLs for things like this.)
β π₯ johnmu of switzerland (personal) π₯ (@JohnMu) August 9, 2022
Let me know if it doesn’t settle down over the course of the day, happy to check with some folks here.
β π₯ johnmu of switzerland (personal) π₯ (@JohnMu) August 9, 2022
Yeah, Brodie.
β π₯ johnmu of switzerland (personal) π₯ (@JohnMu) August 9, 2022
Plus, the tracking tools don’t know what to make of this outage and broken Google. Some charts are literally on fire and breaking through the X axis:
So Google is a bit of a mess right now but I believe it is being worked on.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.
Update at 9:20 am ET: I am hearing some reports that some of the issues are returning back to normal. Keep in mind, that this can take a lot of time, even if you see that things are normal again, the next person might still see some pretty bad results. But this will resolve itself and I do hope those injured have a speed recovery.
Update at 2 pm ET: Hearing reports now that things are mostly back to normal.
Source: www.seroundtable.com
SEARCHENGINES
Google Says Google Search Handles marquee Tags Appropriately

Gary Illyes, from the Google Search Relations team, said on LinkedIn that Google Search handles the marquee HTML tag “appropriately.” What does it mean by appropriately? That is Gary for you.
I assume it means Google can read the text within the marquee HTML tag.
The marquee HTML element is used to insert a scrolling area of text. You can control what happens when the text reaches the edges of its content area using its attributes.
Google even has this long standing marquee tag new easter egg that looks like this:
Here are some funny comments in the LinkedIn thread:
Again, Gary wrote, “Please note that, after digging through some ancient code, I can confidently confirm Google handles marquee tags appropriately. You’re welcome, internet.”
Forum discussion at LinkedIn.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Search Result Snippet Scrollable On Some Browsers

Did you know that in some browsers, specifically on Android on Chrome and maybe others, that you can scroll to see more of a longer and truncated snippet in the Google Search results? I didn’t but Kamran Badal spotted this the other day and Glenn Gabe was able to replicate it.
I am not sure if you would care but I found it super interesting that you can kind of scroll to see more of a snippet in the mobile Google Search results. I cannot replicate this on iOS devices but this can be replicated on Android devices.
Kamran Badal wrote on Twitter, “Fun fact, kind of? The descriptions in #Google search results mobile layout are scrollable.”
Here is his screenshots showing this in action:
Glenn Gabe also replicated it himself:
Wow, very interesting. I’m seeing that too for some listings. When truncated heavily, I can tap on that description and see more by scrolling. Highly doubt anyone knows that or is using it. Great catch, though. π pic.twitter.com/uwGjylqNAR
β Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 24, 2023
How interesting.
Again, not sure any of you should care about this, but I found it interesting because it seems like some sort of hack or bug that should not work in Google Search.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Most SEOs Won’t Recommend Using AI To Write Content

A new Twitter poll shows that most SEOs do not yet feel comfortable recommending using AI to write client content. The poll asked, “Would you recommend using an AI writer to your clients?” Most SEOs said no.
Mordy Oberstein posted this poll on Twitter and there were over 600 votes. About 66% said no, they would not recommend an AI writer to their clients, the rest said yes, they would recommend an AI writer.
Here is the poll:
Would you recommend using an AI writer to your clients?
β Mordy Oberstein πΊπ¦ (@MordyOberstein) January 18, 2023
Do you think this poll is representative of the SEO industry?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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