Daily Search Forum Recap: November 27, 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.

Some are asking if Google Search is more personalized with its search results over the past week or so. Google Ads now has a conversation started metric for message assets. Google is playing videos directly in the search results, which hurts engagement. Google will pick the best protocol for crawling performance. Google is testing large thick fonts and gold buttons in the search results.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Are Google Search Results More Personalized?
  There is some speculation within the SEO and search community that Google's search results have recently become more personalized and tailored. This is based on people comparing the search results to being logged into Google and signed out of Google.
• Google Ads New Conversation Started Column For Message Assets
  Google Ads has a new column named "conversation started" for message assets, like WhatsApp messaging, through Google Ads. Clicking on a WhatApp button in Google Ads will trigger the "conversation started" metric in Google Ads.
• Google Search Videos In Overlay May Reduce YouTube Engagement
  Two years ago, we saw Google playing videos, mostly YouTube videos, in an overlay that really gave almost zero incentive for the searcher to click over to the YouTube page. The issue is that you don't get the subscribe or like buttons, or even the ability to comment, on the Google Search video overlays - you do get views and ads in the videos but not the other engagement signals.
• Google Search Picks Protocol For Best Crawling Performance
  Google has slightly updated its Google crawlers and fetchers documentation to say that it will pick the protocol, HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2, that "provides the best crawling performance" for Googlebot. In fact, it may even switch protocols between sessions, if it needs to.
• Google Search Tests Large Thick Fonts
  A couple of weeks ago, we spotted Google testing large thin fonts for the search results. Now I am seeing Google testing large thick and chunk fonts for its search results.
• Google Search Testing Gold Phone Call Buttons
  Google is testing swapping out the blue buttons within the local pack with gold buttons. In this example, the blue call phone icon is now in a gold color, on dark mode.
• Google Logo Filled With Paper Cups, Toy Cars, Trucks & Statues
  This is an interesting Google signage at the Google New York City office. If you look closely, you can see the logo is filled with coffee cups, I love NY mugs, yellow taxi cabs, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and NY fire trucks.

Other Great Search Threads:

• Found an interesting concept in Chrome called "page transitions" which made me realise how fixated I was on links as the primary navigational device. Here's a summary/lists all of them (+ source):, DEJAN on X
• I’m excited to share that Bing Visual Search is now integrated in Windows Photos. Click the camera icon at the bottom to instantly open Bing Visual Search results and explore more, Jordi Ribas on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

• Google’s adtech monopoly faces historic antitrust test
• Google Ads Creative Studio to sunset in Q1 2025
• How to do an SEO projection
• Google Search Console recommendations now fully live
• Google faces £7 Billion UK class action over search monopoly

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

• Custom Channel Groups supports Manual ad content, Google Analytics Help
• How to Increase ROAS by Measuring Purchase Intent, Measure Minds Group
• If your audience's sources of influence and your marketing budget don't align, you're gonna have a bad time, SparkToro

Industry & Business

• From Susan, YouTube Blog
• OpenAI, Meta and Orange to Train AI Models on African Languages, Bloomberg
• Opinion | Don’t Break Up Google, New York Times
• Should you apply to speak? A self-assessment guide for aspiring SEO speakers [+Free tool], Sara Fernández Carmona
• Google subpoenas OpenAI, Perplexity, Microsoft over gen AI tools, Digiday

Links & Content Marketing

• Holiday Marketing Inspiration: 6 Delicious Content Examples, Content Marketing Institute

Local & Maps

• Google Maps now lets you report 'Police' instead of speed traps, 9to5Google
• Google Maps Faces Probe In India After Car Falls Off Bridge Killing 3, NDTV
• Why I Switched from Google Maps to Apple Maps, Yahoo

Mobile & Voice

• 5 ways I’m using Google’s Gemini AI to plan for the holidays, Google Blog
• How to use Google Gemini on your phone, The Verge
• Worldwide Smartphone Market Forecast to Grow 6.2% in 2024, Fueled by Robust Growth for Android in Emerging Markets and China, According to IDC, IDC

SEO

• Countdown to We Love SEO: Helen Pollitt offers a sneak peek of what to expect, Oncrawl
• How to Optimize Your Google Shopping Product Feed, seoClarity
• How to Rank in Google’s Recipes SERP Feature, seoClarity
• SEO for Landing Pages: Best Practices for Ecommerce Websites, Bluetuskr
• SEO ROI - Calculating SEO Return on Investment, Codefixer
• What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?, Terakeet
• Who's Winning off the Back of the Affiliate Publication Drops?, Ahrefs
• Optimising Your Location Pages for Both Users and Search, Screaming Frog
• Top 10 Mistakes and Myths with Hreflang, Take It Offline

PPC

• 5 PPC Scripts I Use To Make My Life Easier, PPC Hero
• Google Shopping Loyalty Programs: A Strategic Asset for Black Friday Success, WordLift Blog
• PMAX for Vehicles Beta Expands to Europe, PPC News Feed
• Don't Rely on Google Ads Reps for Expert Advice, Jyll Saskin Gales
• GMC Introduces Email Alerts for New User Additions, PPC News Feed

Other Search

• OpenAI's Sora appears to have leaked, TechCrunch
• Perplexity mulls getting into hardware, TechCrunch
• OpenAI stops Sora video model access after artists leak in protest, Washington Post

Feedback:

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