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.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Possible Issues With Google Search Console Canonicals & AMP Reporting
There may be some possible bugs or issues with Google Search Console reporting around some canonical URLs being reported in some URL Inspection reports and for the AMP enhancement report. - Google Reveals Cookie Alternative - FLoC
Yesterday, Google has took the cover off its alternative to cookies named FLoC or Federated Learning of Cohorts. FLoC basically clusters "large groups of people with similar interests"," this is data gathered in the browser, not stored anywhere, and it looks at the group and analyzes that data, creating a hidden individual "in the crowd," Google said. - Flagging Reviews In Google My Business Has Changes
Late last week, Google has updated the workflow to flag reviews within Google My Business. The new flow gives you a bit more detail and probably makes it easier for Google to route the reviews in the right priority to the right team for review. - Google Search Gains AR Photorealistic 3D Car Models
In December Google began adding streamed 3D content with AR features for cars. Now, according to Rajan Patel, the VP of Engineering at Google, said "today, AR just got a lot more real in Search." He added Google now has "photorealistic 3D models" of some cars. - Google Search Video Carousel Autoplaying Videos Previews
Back in 2017 we saw Google testing autoplaying video previews in the knowledge panel. Now it seems Google is autoplaying video thumbnails on overlay in the video carousel box in the search results. - Google Search Tests Sans Serif Font
The same day Google began rolling out its new mobile search design, Google also began testing a new font for its search results. Gemma Fontané notified me of this last Friday and provided side by side comparison screen shots on Twitter. - Google Robots At Google Poland Office
Google Poland has a lobby area with these robots. I am not sure if they are official Googlebot who spend their time crawling the web or if they are just for greeting visitors at the Poland office. T
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- It’s an interesting gambit. Australia is a small market but what about the whole of Europe?, Greg Sterling on Twitter
- Bing is now showing "Estimated Reading Time" on search results, what you 🤔 @rustybrick @BingWMC https://t.co/yQjh87ZhMv, Need For Gaming on Twitter
- If you use a CDN for embedded resources like that, usually they're not indexable on their own (eg, CSS or JS files, images, videos). No need to do anything special., John Mueller on Twitter
- Our new knowledge cards provide quick, easy and visually rich summaries of popular topics, aggregated from multiple sources, to help keep your search easy and fun. 🔍 Read more here: https://t.co/Me0fm9aMyG. https://, Microsoft Bing Dev on Twitter
- There's no absolute answer for speed, because all tools are just trying to predict when users will become annoyed with a website. As you've probably noticed with your own browsing, that can sometimes be small th, John Mueller on Twitter
- To help get vaccines to more people, Google is providing $150M to promote vaccine education & equitable access, and opening up our spaces for vaccination sites as needed. On Search & Maps, we’re making it easy to find whe, Sundar Pichai on Twitter
- Not all reviews & photos are positive, and sometimes that's what other users need to see. I realize there's also a potential for abuse, but working on ways to react to negative feedback, John Mueller on Twitter
- Twitter Intros "Birdwatch" Community-Driven Approach to Misinformation, WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Land Stories:
- Microsoft Advertising now offers Filter Link Extensions
- Train with the experts from Adobe, Microsoft, and more at SMX
- Video: Dawn Beobide on the importance of training your developers on SEO
- Google adds price drop appearance rich results to search results
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Create a Custom Report in Google Analytics, Business 2 Community
- Make Informed Decisions on Business Growth by Learning Google Analytics, Entrepreneur
Industry & Business
- Google stops donations to U.S. Congress members who voted against election results, Reuters
- What I learned from Google for Startups Founders Academy, Google Blog
Local & Maps
- Google Maps will soon show COVID vaccine locations, Ars Technica
Mobile & Voice
- Google Assistant 'wellness' section prepares to track fitness, 9to5Google
- Google Assistant Adds Wellness Tab for Smart Displays, Voicebot
- Some of the very best Google Assistant easter eggs [Video], 9to5Google
SEO
- How to plan an SEO campaign for higher rankings, Yoast
- Common Shopify Crawling Issues & How To Fix Them, DeepCrawl
- Yoast SEO 15.7: Helping you write better content, Yoast
PPC
- Changes to Hotel Ads pricing buckets in the Google Ads API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Does Your Google Ad Spend Buy Better SEO?, JumpFly
- Google's Ads Data Hub Should Be on Every Marketer's Radar, Street Fight
- Guide: 8 PPC strategies for retail marketers, Vertical Leap
- More engagement with Filter Link Extensions, Microsoft Advertising
