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:
- Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Algorithm Update, Search Console Analytics Consolidation & Bing To Slow Crawling
This week I published the monthly Google webmaster report summarizing the past month of changes in search with Google. Google may have done a search ranking algorithm update yesterday... - Bing Strongly Recommends Publishers Use The Submit URL Tool
Last week we reported that Bing expanded their submit URL tool from 10 URLs per day to 10,000 URLs per day, removing essentially all the quotas. The shocking part in that announcement was that they seemed to want to do away with crawling as a strategy for getting web pages into their index. - Google: CTR, Dwell Time & Other UX Signals Are Made Up Myths
In that Reddit AMA with Gary Illyes, Gary said out right and clear that the theories around Google using UX and behavioral signals such as CTR and dwell time are "generally made up crap." He added "Search is much more simple than people think." - Google Gary Illyes: RankBrain Is PR-Sexy Machine Learning
I love when Gary Illyes talks about Google. He was asked about what is RankBrain and goes off to explain that "RankBrain is a PR-sexy machine learning ranking component." I would love to see how Google's sexy PR team talks to Gary about this comment. - Google Tests Image Carousel With Refinement Bubbles
Google loves their refinement bubbles so much that they are also testing it on the image search box in web search. They have it for featured snippets, for image search and many other cases and now they are testing it in the image search box directly in web search. - Google Search Console Is Down Right Now (Update: It Is Back Now)
Right now, if you try to access Google Search Console you will get a 404 page not found error. This is not intentional, something is wrong and Google is working on the fix... - Google Doodle For Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge
On Google's home page today is a cool looking Doodle, special Google logo, for Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge. Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge was a German analytical chemist who identified caffeine. Caffeine is a big deal for most of us, so we have Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge to thank for that. - Google's Kiddie Pool Filled With Ice Cream
Here is a photo from the Google offices showing a kiddie pool filled up with a lot of ice cream. A Sous Chef at Google posted the image on Instagram some time ago. Would you eat from it?
Other Great Search Forum Threads:
- #GoogleAdsUpdates We’re expanding the audience and buying features for the YouTube Masthead. Check it out ➡ https://t.co/gLXxiMH3kw… https://t.co/dVdRYPmZrt, Google Ads on Twitter
- Apple Security Update iOS 12.1.4 Fixes Facetime Vulnerability, WebmasterWorld
- Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram Data Unification Stopped in Germany, WebmasterWorld
- Gary Ilyes Answers How RankBrain Works, WebmasterWorld
- [Feedback wanted] Search engine scraping software for large quantities of keywords : bigseo, Reddit
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Multi-Currency Ecommerce Tracking in Google Analytics with GTM, Analytics Mania
- A deeper connection between Google Analytics 360 and Salesforce Sales Cloud, Google Blog
- Lucky Brand creates an insights-driven culture with Data Studio, Google
Industry & Business
- Google Began Censoring Search Results in Russia, Reports Say, The Moscow Times
Links & Promotion Building
- Link Building 2019, SISTRIX
- Using STAT for Content Strategy - Whiteboard Friday, Moz
- We Analyzed 100,000 Unnatural Links and This Is What We’ve Learned, Cognitive SEO
Local & Maps
- Google probably won’t pull DWI checkpoints from Waze despite NYPD demand, The Verge
- Google refuses to blur nuclear facilities on Google Maps, The Brussels Times
Mobile & Voice
- Toyota adding Android Auto support to cars for the first time, 9to5Google
- Google Assistant shortcut on mobile Search homepage now more widely available, 9to5Google
SEO
- February 5, 2019 - Google Help Hangout Notes, Marie Haynes Consulting
- SEO For Web Engineers: 38 Hard-Earned Lessons and Tips, John Wdefeo
- SEO Marketing is Misunderstood. Getting Traffic is the Easy Part of SEO., Raven Blog
- SEO Spider Companion Tools, Aka ‘The Magnificent Seven’ | Screaming Frog, Screaming Frog
PPC
- Announcing v3.3 of the DCM/DFA Reporting and Trafficking API, Google Ads Developer Blog
- Taking PPC Strategy from Average to Expert, PPC Hero
