While last month’s Google webmaster report was filled with the Google March core update, the product reviews update, Bard, AI, sitenames and more; this month was just as packed. We had the reviews update, a local look at the core update, big updates to the Google ranking system’s document, a new search engine for Google code-named Magi, and so much more.

Google renamed the product reviews update to the reviews update which kicked off in April but heated up in week two before completing on day 13 of the rollout. We also looked at how the March core update impacted the local search results. Google removed page experience and other ranking systems from its official documentation, but Google said while page experience is not ranking system, it is a ranking signal. With that, Google also added page experience to its helpful content guidance documentation.

Google also is working on an all-new search engine code-named Magi, but before that, Google will release AI-features to the current search engine. Speaking of AI, Google made some improvements to Bard (see links below).

Google flexed the powers of SpamBrain, fixed some but not all of the issues with Site names in search, and decided to remove some video thumbnails from some search results (which has a huge impact on click-through rates). Google also may be rewriting more titles and dropped FAQ rich results on mobile search.

Google Search Console will also drop the page experience, mobile usability and mobile-friendly test in the coming months. But Search Console added shipping and return reporting and a new reader revenue manager for publishers.

Plus so much more including new deadlines for the GA 4 switch over.

Here are the top headlines for the past month:

Google Algorithm:
Google April 2023 Reviews Update Rolls Out, Expands To Cover Reviews About Products, Services, and Things
Google April 2023 Reviews Update – What We’re Seeing…
Google Reviews Update Heats Up Again
Google April 2023 Reviews Update Done Rolling Out
Google March 2023 Broad Core Update Impact Local Rankings?
Google: Page Experience Is A Ranking Signal, Not A Ranking System
Google Drops Mobile-Friendly, Page Speed, Secure Sites & Page Experience As Retired Ranking Systems
Here Is What Changed With The Google Helpful Content Guidance – Page Experience & More

Google Bard & AI:
Report: Google Working On New More Personalized Search Engine & Project Magi
Google Will Use Generative AI In Search
Google Bard Adds Google It Related Topics & Release Notes Page
Google Bard Drafts More Varied & Bing Chat Math Formulas Nicer
Bing Chat Better At News / Sports & Google Bard Can Code, Plus More AI Updates
Poll: How Often Search Marketers Are Using ChatGPT, Bing Chat & Google Bard vs Traditional Search

Google SEO:
SpamBrain Flexes In Google’s 2022 Web Spam Report
Google Search Wants You To Report Inaccurate Site Names
Google Search Update Fixes Some Problematic Site Names
Google Removes Video Thumbnails In Search Results When Video Is Not Main Content
Is Google Search Rewriting More Titles Again?
Google FAQ Snippets Drop For Many Sites On April 5th
Google: No SEO Reason To Delay Release Of Thousands Of Pages
Google: Most Links SEOs Make To Gain Rankings & Manipulate Search Are Ignored
Google: International SEO, CDN Location Does Not Matter
Google: We Learn How To Crawl Your Site’s URL Patterns
Google: If You Can’t Block No Result Found Internal Search Results Then Block All Search Results
Google Documents Its Three Types Of Web Crawlers
GoogleOther: A New Generic Google Crawler To Help Googlebot

Google Search Console:
Google Search Console To Drop Page Experience Report, Mobile Usability Report & Mobile-Friendly Tests
Google Expands Return / Shipping Details In Search Results & New Search Console Reporting
Google Publisher Center Reader Revenue Manager & Search Console Subscribed Content Report

Google User Interface:
Google Tests Automated Product Result Slider Thumbnail Images In Mobile Search
Google Search Car Carousel
Google Search Tests Color Swatch For Product Grid Results
Google Search Product Image Thumbnail Snippets With Pricing Overlays
Google Image & Video Search Test Blurring Explicit Content, Instead Of Removing It
Google Tests Displaying Follower Counts In Search Result Snippets
Google Tests Grid Format For Local Results In Mobile Web Search
Google Search “Lives Affected” Box For Horrific Events

Google Business Profiles & Local:
Google Texting Businesses To Validate Google Business Profile Information
New Google Business Profiles Tips To Avoid Bulk Verification Delays
Google Knowledge Local Panel “Often Searched Together” Section
Google Local Finder With Blended Query Results
Google Local Pack Displays Booked Reservations

Google Analytics:
Google Analytics To Show UA3 Data For A Year After It Stops Collecting Data On July 1, 2023
GA4 Fractional Cross-Channel Conversion Credit Now Imported Into Google Ads

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.