Daily Search Forum Recap: February 18, 2025

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 says there is no shortcut to persistent faster crawling. Google Search is testing a new background section and a new pagination bar style. Google Ads has Advanced plans section. Bing is testing related searches on knowledge panels.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google: There Is No Persistent Shortcut To Faster Crawling
  Google's John Mueller said that there is no persistent shortcut to faster crawling. Yes, you can expedite crawling for specific situations and times, but there is no way to just tell Google you want them to crawl you faster, all the time.
• Google Search Testing Background Section
  Google Search is testing a new section in the search results titled or named "Background." This includes articles from news publishers, with I guess, more background information than you would find from others.
• Google Ads Advanced Plans
  Google Ads has this section (not sure if it is new) named Advanced Plans. This feature allows you to select a "mix of ad types based on goals" and Google will create conversion creation and capture plans for you.
• Bing Tests Knowledge Panels With Related Searches Box
  Microsoft is testing adding a new box to the knowledge panels within Bing that show related searches. This is obviously to encourage searches to do more queries, to generate more ads and more revenue. Or maybe to help searchers find a more diverse set of topics to search for.
• Google Search Testing New Pagination Bar Without Numbers
  Google is testing removing the numbers from the pagination menu at the footer of the Google Search results page. The normal pagination bar shows the page number you are on, the test just shows a next button.
• Google India Outdoor Yellow Canopy Bench
  Here is a photo of a yellow bench canopy outside of the Google office in India. I guess Googlers there can eat outside the office or work outside the office in this bench.

Other Great Search Threads:

• DuckDuckGo AI Assistant now provides the 'Show answers more often' feature (you can also turn it off). Here's the view with and without it. It may be old, but I'm seeing it for the first time., Sachin Patel on X
• It's really impossible to see any details there, but one thing I notice is that you have is a URL with the ":" escaped vs unescaped (it usually isn't escaped). Also, the disallow is for the "q" parameter being immediately after the ?, and p, John Mueller on Bluesky
• trying GPT-4.5 has been much more of a "feel the AGI" moment among high-taste testers than i expected!, Sam Altman on X
• Walmart is now competing against recipe & food bloggers for SEO & Social. What is smart that they're selling the ingredients on the recipes. Tons of ways they can do better SEO & UX wise, but their domain will give them an advantage, Adam Riemer on X
• We asked users if they would switch to an alternative Android digital assistant like Perplexity. We received nearly 6,000 votes in our site-wide survey, with over 52% of voters saying they would switch from Gemini to Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas on X
• Yes, we spent so much time perfecting that interaction, tri-positional switch, everything. Brings back memories…, Mikhail Parakhin on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• How to prevent PPC from cannibalizing your SEO efforts
• From search to AI agents: The future of digital experiences

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

• Baidu Shares’ Underperformance in Focus as Earnings Results Loom, Bloomberg
• Baidu’s Revenue Slides After Chinese AI Rivalry Heats Up, Bloomberg
• OpenAI seeks new powers to fend off hostile takeover from Elon Musk, Financial Times (Sub)

Links & Content Marketing

• How do you build local backlinks?, Walsh & Partners
• Content Gap Analysis Using AI (EP48), Compass Digital Strategies

Local & Maps

• Gulf of America: Mexico threatens to sue Google over name change of Gulf of Mexico on US maps, CNN
• Apple Maps could soon get one of Google Maps' worst features – and I may have to move elsewhere, TechRadar

Mobile & Voice

• Google Search's AI Mode to be available just a tap away on Pixels, Android Headlines
• This upcoming Gemini Live feature should have been available from the get-go (APK teardown), Android Authority
• Google app preps for Search's AI Mode with a new selection of shortcuts (APK teardown), Android Authority

SEO

• Google Search Personalisation: 61% Logged In in 2012, Nearly 100% on Mobile – The 2025 Perspective, Mr Jonathan Jones
• How to Analyze a Sudden Drop in Website Traffic [With Template], Ahrefs
• HTTP vs. HTTPS: Explaining the Difference & How to Switch, Semrush
• Improving Crawling & Indexing with Noindex, Robots.txt & Rel Attributes, Sitebulb

PPC

• 5 Ways to Optimize Google Ads PMax, Video, & Display Campaigns, WordStream
• Announcing beta launch of Display & Video 360 API v4 and new v3 features, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Update to Customer Match membership expiration starting April 7, 2025, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Why Google Ads’ Brand Guidelines Change is Good for Advertisers, Cypress North

Other Search

• Knowz Wants to Change How You Search, Bill Hartzer
• Grok-3: Elon Musk's xAI Unveils New AI Model to Rival ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Bloomberg

Feedback:

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