SEARCHENGINES
Google Working On New More Personalized Search Engine & Project Magi

The New York Times reported yesterday that Google is working on an “all-new search engine” while also working on Project Magi, aimed to add AI-based features to the existing search engine.
In fact, according to this report, Google is working on these two projects and several other AI-based search projects to be incorporated into Google Maps, Chrome, Android, and other platforms. I did summarize this yesterday on Search Engine Land but I felt it was important to summarize it here as well, I’ll keep it shorter here.
All-New Google Search To Bring Back Personalization
“Google is racing to build an all-new search engine powered by the technology. It is also upgrading the existing one with A.I. features, according to internal documents reviewed by The Times,” the report wrote. There will be a “far more personalized experience than the company’s current service, attempting to anticipate users’ needs.” “Modernizing its search engine has become an obsession at Google, and the planned changes could put new A.I. technology in phones and homes all over the world,” the Times added.
When is this coming? It is too soon to know. There is no timeline or ETA for when we might hear about this from Google or see this being tested.
Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, said, “We’ve been bringing AI to Google Search for years to not only dramatically improve the quality of our results, but also introduce entirely new ways to search, such as Lens and multisearch. We’ve done so in a responsible and helpful way that maintains the high bar we set for delivering quality information. Not every brainstorm deck or product idea leads to a launch, but as we’ve said before, we’re excited about bringing new AI-powered features to Search, and will share more details soon.”
Google has been talking about a vastly different Google Search for a couple of weeks now, so this should not shock too many of you. Also, Google wrote in late March with the Bard release, “We’ll also be thoughtfully integrating LLMs into Search in a deeper way – more to come.”
As I noted on Search Engine Land, Google did the personalization thing in Google Search in a big way in 2009. But then scaled back on that, maybe due to privacy reason, but Google said it was being personalization added little benefit to overall search quality and relevancy. So much so, Google very lightly uses personalization in Google Search these days outside of previous query and location of the searcher.
Project Magi Coming Soon
While waiting for the all-new Google search, Google is expected to release features that help searchers transact with the search results. This is under the project name Magi and we may see signs of Google testing this in the wild as early as next month.
Search features under Google Magi would allow searchers to complete transactions, such as buying shoes or booking flights. Google Search would allow searchers to complete financial transactions, as explained before, while still incorporating the existing search ads that you see in Google Search today.
These changes can allow searchers to answer questions around “software coding and write code based on a user’s request.” “Google may place an ad under the computer code answers, according to a document,” the report added.
Other features Googlers are working on include:
- Google Earth’s mapping technology with help from A.I. and search for music through a conversation with a chatbot.
- GIFI would use A.I. to generate images in Google Image results.
- Tivoli Tutor, would teach users a new language through open-ended A.I. text conversations.
- Searchalong, would let users ask a chatbot questions while surfing the web through Google’s Chrome browser.
Is SEO Dead?
I think SEO is fine for the time being, but things will eventually change:
Making a technically good, easily findable, well-targeted, high-quality website will continue to be critical for those who want to be recommended on the web. Yes, things will change, they always do, but the need for smart, experienced, and curious SEOs is imo not going away.
— johnmu is AI-bait 🏄🏼♀️ 🏄🏼 🏄🏼♂️ (@JohnMu) April 16, 2023
Also, I recommend checking out the 60 minutes interview from the other day over here.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
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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