Daily Search Forum Recap: July 29, 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 says the next core update isn't extremely far away, and encourages some publishes to hold out. Google's ongoing search ranking volatility is pretty intense. Google Discover is pushing clicks to AI Overviews in Search. New data shows how often Google mixes ads into the organic search results. Google Business Profiles now lets you upload photos of your menu to convert that into a digital menu. Google Search may be showing fewer posts from X/Twitter in the search results.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google: Core Update Isn't Extremely Far Away As Publishers Grow Concerned
  Google's John Mueller responded to complaints about image thumbnails still not showing up for some publishers in the search results. He encouraged a bit more patience, saying "the next one [core update] isn't extremely far away now, so I'd recommend waiting for that."
• Ongoing Google Search Ranking Volatility For 2 Weeks
  Over the past almost two weeks, we have seen consistent and ongoing ranking volatility on a daily basis. The last Google search ranking update I covered was around July 23rd, then before that was July 18th and then July 9th. But every says since around July 17th there has been high volatility with the Google Search rankings.
• Google Discover Promoting AI Overviews In Search
  Google Discover is now pushing users to see AI Overviews directly in the Google Search results. As you scroll through the Discover feed on Google.com, you may see a promotion of sorts to learn more about a topic through the lens of AI Overviews.
• Report: How Often Google Mixes Ads Into Organic Search Results
  Google has been mixing search ads into the free organic search results for several months now; Google even changed its definition of what it considers top ads in order to account for this change. New data from Semrush shows just how often Google mixes search ads into the organic results.
• Google Showing X Carousel Less Often For News Topics?
  Google may be displaying the X (formerly Twitter) carousel in the search results less often for news related topics. A report from Newzdash shows the X carousel is showing up for about 12% of queries, when earlier this year it was showing for closer to 27% of queries in Google Search.
• Google Business Profiles New Generate Menu From Photo
  Google Business Profiles has a new AI feature to let you upload a photo of your menu and Google will create your menu items for your restaurant based on that photo. This is a generative AI feature and is currently considered "experimental."
• I Love Bing Hat At Google Office - Googleween
  Here is a photo from about a decade ago of a Googler wearing an I Love Bing hat, in a mask, holding a Google umbrella at the Google Ann Arbor offices. This was for a Halloween party, or as Google calls it - Googleween.

Other Great Search Threads:

• An “edge” in this context means the identical keyword would be selected over the other keywords in your account – but it doesn’t necessarily mean it will have an edge over other keywords it goes up, AdsLiaison on X
• The first two prioritization rules have been in place because we know advertisers expect specific matching behavior when the keyword is identical to the query. But, we also know building out, AdsLiaison on X
• NSFW Google results pulled directly from Quora: My friend searched "what are things associated with the 70s" for writing ideas. This is what Google shows. See for yourself. EVERY SINGLE insane result is from Quora. @lilyraynyc not, Abby Gleason on X
• Thread of how @MSFTAdvertising is beating @GoogleAds ads interface. 1) Allows advertisers to customize the static list of tools on the left side, Greg on X
• Vehicle listings are available to merchants who’ve been invited to the new experience in the US, CA and AU. For automotive merchants in the UK, DE and FR, access will start becoming available early August. (For those without existing vehicle listings, y, AdsLiaison on X
• News! Microsoft launched impression-based remarketing. The new era of First-Party Cookies. All you need to know., Thomas Eccel on X
• That’s right — we have protections in place for topics like political violence, which typically work well. But we're working on improvements to make our predictions more up to date. Regardless of what Autocomp, Google Communications on X
• This allows them to generate relevant and coherent responses. But not necessarily factually correct ones. YOU, the user of these LLMs, still need to validate the answers based on what you know about the topic you asked the LLM about or based on additional, Gary Illyes on LinkedIn

Search Engine Land Stories:

• The latest jobs in search marketing
• Reddit launches Lead Generation Ads
• How blogging builds trust and brand loyalty in the age of AI
• DIY reactive digital PR: How to earn media coverage on a budget

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Attribution is Dying. Clicks are Dying. Marketing is Going Back to the 20th Century., SparkToro

Industry & Business

• Google defends itself in proposed class action, says it never collected users’ personal information, Courthouse News Service
• You Won't Find Ping-Pong Tables at New Google NYC Office, Business Insider
• The $600 Billion Digital Ad Business Is Hanging on a Few Words From Google, Wall Street Journal

Links & Content Marketing

• Google Drops Out of the Anti-Cookie Campaign. What’s Next?, Content Marketing Institute
• The Right Way to Pass PageRank, Practical Ecommerce

Local & Maps

• Google Releases the Most Anticipated Google Maps Update on Android Auto, AutoEvolution
• Why Apple Maps on the web is an even bigger deal than Apple Intelligence, Macworld

Mobile & Voice

• Apple Intelligence to Miss Initial Release of iOS 18, iPadOS Overhauls, Bloomberg
• The best Google Assistant commands in 2024, Tom's Guide

SEO

• The 6 Best SEO Tools for Small Businesses, Semrush
• 20 SEO Mistakes to Avoid for Better Rankings, Level343
• International SEO Strategy Mistakes: 8 Do’s & Don’ts, Sitebulb

PPC

• Google Is Asking To Take Action When Enhanced Conversions Are Already Installed, FeedArmy
• Condition Attribute Updated for Vehicle Ads in Germany, PPC News Feed

Other Search

• Actionable AI — Whiteboard Friday, Moz
• DAGify: Accelerate Your Journey from Control-M to Apache Airflow, Google Open Source Blog
• Google search autocomplete for Trump assassination attempt stirs up controversy, Fox Business
• Google's DeepMind Says Its AI Can Tackle Math Olympiad Problems, Bloomberg
• Google AI systems make headway with math in progress toward reasoning, Reuters

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, on Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky and you can follow us on Facebook and on Google News and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.