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Moz Returns To The Google Search Results After Fraudulent DMCA Takedown

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Yesterday afternoon Moz’s home page was removed from the Google Search results after Google processed a fraudulent (or mistaken) DMCA takedown request. Moz is now back, within 12 hours from when Google learned about the issue – but there is no response from Google on how this could have happened as of yet.

To be fair, I forgot to email Google last night but I did email this morning and I will let you know if I hear back.

So what happened? As I covered last night at Search Engine Land, a search for [moz] did not show Moz’s home page in the search results, it showed the Moz blog first:

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Where did the Moz home page go? Well, it was excluded by an approved DMCA request for supposedly distributing “modified, cracked and unauthorized versions” of the Dr. Driving app,” the DMCA takedown request wrote. Moz.com was included on line 122 of the list of 185 URLs allegedly doing this.

If you went to the footer of the Google Search results for the query on Moz, it had these details and links:

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Cyrus was the first to spot this last night and shortly after, Danny Sullivan from Google responded that he passed it along:

As of this morning, at around 3am ET, Moz returned to the Google search results:

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Yea – this is scary. How can a DMCA takedown request actually lead to the removal of a reputable company’s home page from Google Search? What would happen if this happened to a smaller brand that does not notice their home page being removed for days or weeks? Would Google be able to respond as fast to smaller company’s who have this issue? I just want to know what went wrong here and how Google can prevent it in the future. This has been a concern for well over a decade and it came true for Moz.

Of course, sites go missing from Google here and there. Search Engine Land was thought, mistakenly, to be hacked and was removed for a period of time. It happened to Digg when it was penalized by accident. It happens to others as well… Sometimes it is the site’s own fault, like with LinkedIn and I get that but when it is Google’s fault?

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Source: www.seroundtable.com

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Google Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

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Google Hanukkah 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.

Google Hanukkah Decorations 2023

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.

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

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Woman Checking Out Store Google Logo

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:

G Pay Accepted Google Search

Here are some more screenshots:

Brodie Clark also posted some screenshots after on X:

Google Pay Accepted Google Search

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.



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Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

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Dog Astronut Google Logo

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:

Google Discover Old Stories Follow

Google Discover Old Stories Follow2

Have you noticed this in your Discover feed?

Forum discussion at X.



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