Daily Search Forum Recap: May 1, 2024

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 Ads posted its first feature announcement in over two months, it is on PMax updates. Bing Webmaster Tools fixed a notification bug. Google SGE renamed its AI overviews to AI Answer. Most SEOs have not filled in the Google March 2024 core update feedback form. A Google search for flag GIFs can lead to Nazi flags.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Ads Posts First New Feature Announcement In Two Months - PMax Updates
  Google Ads has posted its first new features announcement in its help section in over two months. This was to announce several Performance Max campaigns features, which we will get into below. But like I reported earlier, Google has not posted anything in this section for two months prior to posting this new announcement.
• Googling "Flag GIF" Leads To Nazi Flags In Google Search
  If you search for [flag GIF] on Google, click on the "waiving" refinement, you are taken to images of Nazi flags. I waited a full week to report on this, a full week from when Google acknowledged the issue and it is still an issue.
• Bing Webmaster Tools Notifications & Insights Bug Fixed
  Fabrice Canel from Microsoft confirmed Microsoft has fixed a bug with Bing Webmaster Tools showing inaccurate and/or irrelevant notifications in the notifications and insights section. Fabrice wrote, "Happy to report that the fix has been implemented and the issue should now be resolved for your site and all sites once data is refreshed."
• Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title - AI Answer
  Google is now labeling or using the title of its SGE, Search Generative Experience, "AI Answer." This replaces the title "AI Overviews" and "Al overviews are experimental." This change happened on Monday, I believe.
• Most SEOs Did Not Send Feedback To Google On The March 2024 Core Update
  Google opened up its feedback form after it announced the Google March 2024 core update was completed and it seems most SEOs did not send Google feedback. Why? Maybe because many don't believe Google will use that feedback to help them? Maybe because SEOs don't want to share specifics with Google?
• Sundar Pichai 20 Year Google Anniversary
  Google's CEO, Sunday Pichai, on April 26, 2024, posted on Instagram that he is celebrating him 20 year anniversary of working at Google. He started on April 26, 2004 and is now running the place.

Other Great Search Threads:

• ave you seen this before.... Seems like looker studio google has got lot of spam links injected ...i just encountered this while checking something... its tons of content... made a search with site: hea, Raman on X
• Gartner: "By 2026, Google will lose 1/4 of queries to AI" Datos: "Really? Let's investigate that claim with data from millions of real Internet users." https://t.co/5QErT9g9IF Embarrassing that th, Rand Fishkin on X
• The favicon guidelines are at https://t.co/9z0HOt9H5f - not all sites have unique favicons, so I wouldn't immediately call that spammy. For images in general, a legal path may be open via the DMCA process., John Mueller on X
• Well, moved to Munich, Germany., John Mueller on X
• The more server logs and crawl patterns I see, the more I’m sure the world needs more SEOs. Of the good kind. You see, part of good tech SEO is fixing spiders traps, optimizing crawling, speeding up sites. 1/6, Joost de Valk on X
• This Google Ads thing is becoming really expensive. Fee increase from 2% to 2.5% for Italy. Fee increase from 2% to 3% for Spain. Fee increase from 5% to 7% for Turkey., Thomas Eccel on X
• We’re committed to ongoing and planned enhancements and listening to great ideas as yours to help us maximizing our crawl efficiency and minimize crawls. There’s no AI or PhD that can outperform the IndexNow signal when it is properly configured. We f, Fabrice Canel on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Reminder: New Google Search reputation abuse policy starts soon
• Google Ads will pause low-activity keywords starting in June
• Explore the latest in AI, SEO, PPC, and more at SMX Advanced
• How to transform your Google Ads headlines with anti-audiences
• The future of SEO in an AI-powered world
• Optimizing for INP, the new Core Web Vitals metric
• Google adds 6 new AI features for Performance Max
• Number of concerns over Google Privacy Sandbox grow to 111
• Microsoft makes Copilot available to all advertisers
• Top 5 paid search B2B lead gen strategies for 2024
• Study: 56% of Google’s top three positions are held by ccTLDs

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Google delays phase-out of third-party cookies…again , Brainlabs
• Setting up Google Analytics, Craig Campbell
• How Google’s post-cookie delay affects the ad industry, Ad Age

Industry & Business

• Google takes lion's share of UK ad market as publishers lose out, Press Gazette
• Apple poaches AI experts from Google and builds a secret AI lab, QZ
• Friends From the Old Neighborhood Turn Rivals in Big Tech’s A.I. Race, New York Times
• Google Founders’ Hand-Picked CEO Nears Billionaire Status Too, Bloomberg
• Google needs a more formalized way to kill products, 9to5Google
• Local Memo: Rank Isn't the Primary Decision Factor for Consumers in Many Industries, SOCi
• San Francisco homeless people to receive $1,000 a month from Google, The San Francisco Standard
• Google sued by US artists over AI image generator, Reuters
• Meet the Woman Who Showed President Biden ChatGPT—and Helped Set the Course for AI, Wired
• Microsoft and OpenAI sued yet again by Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News, Engadget
• Microsoft Concern About Google’s Lead Drove Investment in OpenAI, Bloomberg

Links & Content Marketing

• 11 Content Experiments to Run to Increase Traffic, SEOTesting
• Content Buckets: 6 Examples of Ways to Organize Your Content, Semrush
• What Are Reciprocal Links? Are They Good or Bad for SEO?, Semrush
• Why Digital PR is essential to supercharge E-E-A-T, Hallam
• HARO: Is It Alternatives You’re Looking For?, Ahrefs

Local & Maps

• Steps for Better Local Business Client Meetings, Moz
• Yelp launches new AI assistant to help consumers easily find and connect with service professionals, Yelp

Mobile & Voice

• Google rejected 2.28 million risky Android apps from Play store in 2023, Bleeping Computer
• Meta and Google Are Betting on AI Voice Assistants. Will They Take Off?, New York Times

SEO

• AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With 'Parasite SEO', 404 Media
• How to combine SEO and CRO, Blue Array SEO
• 3 Steps to Get Ahead in an AI-First Search World, BrightEdge
• Carving a Career in SEO — How NOT to Get Taken for a Ride, Moz
• How Did Authority Bloggers Beat the Google Update?, Chris Garrett
• SEO A/B testing: realizing the value of a good experimentation program, Search Pilot
• SEO for Developers: 10 Best Practices to Know, Semrush
• SGE: New data and the future of SEO and SERP…, STAT Search Analytics
• User Search Journeys: Advantages and Use Cases for Agencies, seoClarity
• What is bounce rate and how has it changed?, Wix SEO Hub
• Why Google SEO Traffic is More Appealing Than Social Media, Adam Riemer
• Yoast SEO 22.6 brings more enhancements, Yoast
• What to do about Google's Reddit habit?, SERP's Up SEO Podcast

PPC

• April 2024 update to Display & Video 360 API, Google Ads Developer Blog
• Display & Video 360 updates from Google NewFront, Google Blog
• Google Ads Keywords Explained: Boost Your PPC Performance, Semrush
• How To Add Google Shopping Conversion Annotations, FeedArmy
• How to Track Keywords: The Ultimate Guide, Semrush

Search Features

• Why your Google search results may look different, The Hill
• OpenAI introduces "Memory" feature for ChatGPT Plus users, The Decoder

Other Search

• How Machine Learning improved the Chrome address bar on Windows, Mac and ChromeOS, Chromium Blog
• We’re bringing the Financial Times’ world-class journalism to ChatGPT, OpenAI
• Developers seethe as Google surfaces buggy AI-written code, The Register
• Google Image Search, Hill Web Creations
• How good is OpenAI’s Sora video model — and will it transform jobs?, Financial Times (Sub)

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