SEARCHENGINES

Here Is What Google Search May Be Launching At I/O

Published

12 months ago

May 8, 2023

For the past couple of weeks now, we’ve been hearing reports of how Google will change Google Search in the wake of AI and changes in searcher behavior. As many of you know, I cover a ton of Google Search user interface changes and I put together a collection of some of those changes we found that I think Google might announce at I/O as the future of Google Search.

A couple of weeks ago we covered the NY Times piece of Project Magi, an “all-new search engine” that Google is working on to bring in a personalized search engine with a lot of AI-power. Then over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal wrote about the new search engine coming from Google that is more “visual, snackable, personal, and human, with a focus on serving young people globally.” The article talks about short videos, which Google has had since 2020 but now Google might show a lot more of them. It also talks about adding Bard-like features directly to search and more.

So here are some new features that I think Google may be announcing at I/O related to this new search engine.

As I was writing this up on Sunday, Glenn Gabe posted and summed up some of those featured nicely in this tweet, but let me dig into them more:

Remember, Google has been testing, or has released, features & functionality that could be leveraged with this new move. E.g. Google Explore, Short Videos, Q&A, Perspectives, Featured Snippets from multiple sources, various types of carousels, & more. Eager for Wednesday. 🙂 https://t.co/SDovnAntmD
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 7, 2023
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Bard (of sorts) Integrated Into Google Search

This is the only screenshot I mocked up myself to demonstrate how Google Bard, or something similar, can be integrated in place of featured snippets in the Google Search results. The rest of the images below are all tests we have seen from Google in the wild:

Visual Grid Formats

A couple of weeks ago, we spotted a more visual grid format for the search results. Here are some screenshots:

This was spotted by Brandon on Twitter who posted a video cast of this in action, here is a still screenshot from that video that you can click on to enlarge:

Here is another one from Valentin Pletzer on Twitter:

And one from Jen Cornwell on Twitter:

Google Explore

Google Explore has been in testing since June 2022 and since then, it has lost its title and has made its way into more areas like local explore areas. Google also did announce this feature later, but Google has been known to re-announce features at events.

Holy cannoli!
Have y’all ever seen this “Explore” section of the SERP?
After scrolling down far enough seeing a whole subtopical parsing under a new section of the SERP entitled “Explore” – wild!
What is this sorcery?!
cc: @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/CY0yr2rL8F
— Mordy Oberstein *winner of laser tag* (@MordyOberstein) June 13, 2022
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Explore Within Snippets

Google just started testing explore within search snippets.

Perspectives

Since August 2022, Google has been testing perspectives, which it actually took live in March 2023. We also recently saw Google testing perspectives in the search menu.

Here is what that looks like:

And this version:

Online Forums Q&A

We have seen tons of variations of the forums carousel, where Google brings in questions and answers from popular online discussion forums.

Here are some screenshots but there are more variations than I can post here:

And conversions & discussions and forums:

Pros and Cons in Videos

Google was testing highlighting pros and cons in its search video results:

More Visual Knowledge Panels

In July and October of last year and March of 2023 Google has had these more visual knowledge panels:

Also for locations:

Other Features

There are just too many to list but here are some others we might see from Google at I/O:

And just so much more, scan through all those Google user interface changes – some are pretty wild.

Forum discussion at Twitter & WebmasterWorld.

Related Topics:Google Launching Search searchengine

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO

Published

14 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.

Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:

More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024 #SERPConf2024International
— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024

We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.

Forum discussion at X.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.

SEARCHENGINES

Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.

In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”

John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”

Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:

It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).

Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.

Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.

Here are those new posts in context:

I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024

Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024

Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024

… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
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It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024

And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:

I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024

And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”

Forum discussion at X.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.

SEARCHENGINES

Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important

Published

3 days ago

April 22, 2024

Entireweb News Bot

Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”

Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”

I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:

I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理／경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024

Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.

Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.

Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.

Forum discussion at X and image credit to @n_minkov.