Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google’s URL shortener will stop working in a year and all those billions of links / redirects will vanish. Google says ccTLDs do help a little for ranking. Google gave advice on how to know if your SEO team is doing good. Google Merchant Center Next now supports supplemental feeds. Google local lets you search by product with your camera. And I posted the weekly SEO video recap.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Billions Of Google goo.gl URLs Will No Longer Work
  
  
  Google announced that it will stop serving the Google URL Shortener, so any URL that was set up to redirect using goo.gl, which Google stopped supporting adding new ones back in 2019, will also stop serving.
• 
  Google’s On Knowing If Your SEO Team Is Doing Their Job
  
  
  Google’s John Mueller laid out a few ways to determine if your SEO team is doing the actual work they promised to deliver. While trusting your SEO team is important, John said you can also do the following to ensure the SEO team is doing their job.
• 
  Google Merchant Center Next Gains Support For Supplemental Feeds
  
  
  Google Merchant Center Next now finally supports supplemental feed/source support. Google promised us this would come early this year, but it didn’t happen until early Q3 of 2024. That being said, feed rules still do not seem to be supported yet by Google Merchant Center Next and that was also promised by now.
• 
  Google: ccTLDs & Language Do Help You Rank A Little Better In Local Country Region
  
  
  Gary Illyes from Google said in the latest Google SEO office hours that using a ccTLD and the localized language on your page and website does help you rank a little better in the localized/regional version of Google. So if you want to rank better in Google in Korea, using a ccTLd such as .kr helps a little and using Korean text on your page helps even more.
• 
  Google Local Panel: Search Products With Camera
  
  
  Google is testing showing a button in some local panels, some Google Business Profiles, that reads “Search Products With Camera.” This seems to be related to Google Lens and the new multisearch features.
• 
  Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Coming, Ranking Volatility, Bye Search Notes, AI Overviews, Ads & More
  
  
  Google said that the next Google core update should be coming in the coming weeks. Google had some search ranking volatility, an unconfirmed Google update, around July 18th. Google said it will host more creator…




• 
  Google Monetization Vest Found At Goodwill Store
  
  
  Nick Turner, a Senior technology editor at Bloomberg, shared a photo of his “amazing find” at the local Goodwill store. It is a Google vest that says “MONETIZATION” on the back.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

We’re seeing more Google Search ranking volatility, is this a sign of the core update coming? Google is testing AI Overviews on by default in the UK, even on some Workspace accounts. Google Merchant Center Next is coming to all merchants now. Google’s site reputation abuse policy forced a public company to lower earnings forecasts. Google is testing bolding the query in the search box when unselected.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Search Ranking Algorithm Volatility – July 18th
  
  
  We may be seeing the start of a Google Search ranking algorithm update, as I am starting to see volatility spiking in the Google Search results and a spike in chatter within the SEO community. I know we are expecting the next core update to touch down in the coming weeks, so maybe Google is testing/evaluating something now?
• 
  Google Tests AI Overviews In Workspace Accounts In The UK
  
  
  Google AI Overviews are only really live in the United States, for personal Google accounts (not Workspace accounts) and on Chrome browsers. Well, Google seems to be showing AI Overviews to some Workspace accounts in the UK.




• 
  Google Merchant Center Next Coming To All Merchants
  
  
  Google announced that Google Merchant Center Next, the updated version of Google Merchant Center it announced at Google Marketing Live in 2023, is now coming to all merchants this month. Google has already begun notifying merchants and advertisers of this via email and will continue to do so over the month.





• 
  Google’s Site Reputation Abuse Update Leads Gaming Affiliate To Reduce Financial Forecast
  
  
  Catena Media, a publicly-traded online gambling information company, issued their Q2 earnings update a couple of weeks ago, saying they have reduced its revenues forecast due to the Google Site reputation abuse policy update.






• 
  Google Bolding Query In Search Box When Cursor Out Of Search Box
  
  
  Google is testing bolding the query in the search box when you click your cursor outside of the search box, otherwise the query is in normal plain font text. This is a weird one – don’t you think?
• 
  Doogler Google Office Bed
  
  
  Here is a photo of a Doogler, Google dog, at the Google Dublin office in a dog bed – a Google dog bed. The dog looks a bit tired and for some reason is lying near the bed and not on the bed.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google has finally ended its labs experiment for Search Notes. Google Knowledge Panels tests showing store rating reviews. Google tests renaming short videos to quick takes. Google Ads in Japan changed the term brand match to intent match. Google is testing query refinements under the ad carousel.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google Search Notes Finally To End
  
  
  There was a lot of speculation that Google would remove the Search Notes feature from the Google Search labs results last May after living past its official end date of December 2023. Well, Google told 9to5Google that Notes on Search and Discover is finally going away.
• 
  Google Ads Changed Broad Match To Intent Match In Japan
  
  
  Google Ads has changed what they call broad match to intent match in Japan. So now it is called (Intent Match), it was called (Partial Match).
• 
  Google Knowledge Panels Tests Store Ratings Reviews
  
  
  Google is testing showing store ratings review stars in the knowledge panels for some retail stores. Clicking on the stars will take you into the Google Store Rating panel.
• 
  Google Tests Renaming Short Videos To Quick Takes
  
  
  Google is testing renaming the short videos carousel to quick takes in the Google Search results. Short videos are quick videos Google surfaces in its search results from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other sources and now Google is testing naming them “Quick Takes.”
• 
  Google Ads Query Refinements Under Ad Carousel
  
  
  Google seems to be testing a query refinement ad option. Where Google is showing other search queries related to the ads it is showing under a sponsored ad carousel in the search results.





• 
  Google Paris France Olympics Signage Adapted
  
  
  In April, we covered the prep the Google Paris, France office put together for the upcoming Olympics events by dressing up its lobby signage in Olympic sports. Well, the sign changed a bit. Here is a more recent photo I found on Instagram.

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.