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.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

Is Quora In Google Trouble?
Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analysts, posted on Twitter “Anyone from the Quora SEO team? We need to talk.” Clearly that implies that Quora is doing something potentially not in accordance with Google’s webmaster guidelines and a penalty is possibly on its way?

Google: Structured Data Not A Ranking Factor But May Be Worthwhile
Most of you reading this will say, yea, we know Google has said structured data is not a ranking factor. Yea, we covered that before. But John Mueller from Google said in a Reddit thread that while it is not a ranking factor it may be worthwhile adding, because of how it may enhance your snippets.

Google: Two Waves Of Indexing Less Vital & Going Away
In the hangout with John Mueller and Martin Splitt of Google, Martin Splitt said “the two waves of indexing play less and less of a role.” He added, “I wouldn’t say that two waves of indexing are dead, it’s definitely not. I expect eventually rendering crawling and indexing will come closer together.”

Invalid Markup Does Not Cause Google Manual Actions
John Mueller from Google was asked if having invalid markup for structured data would lead to having a manual action. The answer is no, John said “Just having invalid markup wouldn’t be a cause for a manual action there.”

Google AdSense Adds More Methods To Improve Ad Quality
Google announced new “safeguards” to “protect the quality of our ad network, and the benefits to our publishers and the advertising ecosystem,” they said. This includes the site verification process and Google is enhancing its defenses even more by improving the systems that identify potentially invalid traffic or high risk activities before ads are served.

Back Alley By Google Dublin
Here is a photo I found of a back alley by the Google Dublin office. Truth is, it is a lot nicer than just an alley and if you look at the other photos he shared on Instagram, the area looks pretty ni

Other Great Search Forum Threads:

The rel-canonical link element helps us to understand your preferences regarding URLs. It’s not a redirect. When we use that URL, we do try to concentrate the signals though, so in a way, it’s a multi-posit, John Mueller on Twitter
If there’s no message in Search Console, then it wouldn’t be a manual action, so one thing less to worry about :). Hope the rankings work out!, John Mueller on Twitter
No, there’s no setting for changing the crawling location., John Mueller on Twitter
Quick guide for cleaning up Google My Business spam listings – includes examples, Local Search Forum
Since we generally crawl from the US, I suspect that would be tricky. My recommendation would be to create content that’s accessible to the US, use that for ind, John Mueller on Twitter
That report was removed in January, so it would be hard to look at it now. https://t.co/Bp2DH2YKAK, John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Video marketing tops list of marketers’ priorities, voice search ranks low
Who’s speaking at SMX East?
Yelp adds new personalization features in bid to regain local momentum from Google
Review fraud: Hijacked Amazon reviews a big problem says Consumer Reports

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Enable BigQuery Export For Google Analytics: App + Web Properties, Simo Ahava’s blog
How to make a Stock Market dashboard in Google Data Studio, Michael Howeely

Industry & Business

Ex-Google engineer charged in Uber self-driving theft case, AP
Google faces EU investigation over job-search tool, BBC News
How to create a winning submission for the 2019 Regional Partner Awards, Microsoft Advertising
Former Google Engineer Charged With Stealing Trade Secrets, Wall Street Journal

Links & Promotion Building

First Analysis: DejanSEO Google Penalty for Toxic Links, Link Research Tools

Local & Maps

Travel your first and last mile with Google Maps, Google Blog
Google Maps now lets you combine subway directions with cabs and bikes, The Next Web

Mobile & Voice

BBC to Launch Voice Assistant Next Year in UK as Rise of Independent Voice Assistants Continues, Voicebot
Downloads needed to rank No. 1 on App Store is down 30+% since 2016 for apps, up 47% for games, TechCrunch
Google Discover adds restaurant recommendation cards, 9to5Google
Podcasts and Voice Assistants – Interviews with Google, Edison Research, Westwood One, Spoken Layer, Amplifi Media and Witlingo – Voicebot Podcast Ep 111, Voicebot
Want to Hear a Harry Potter Story? Just Ask Google Assistant, Mental Floss

SEO

5 Things I Learned as a New SEO Account Manager, Seer Interactive
SEO & Content Strategies to Drive Blog Success: In Search SEO Podcast, RankRanger
We Analyzed 5 Million Google Search Results. Here’s What We Learned About Organic CTR, Backlinko
How to Use Keywords in Your Blogging Strategy, Moz

PPC

Organic+Local+Paid: A Holistic Approach for Fast-Changing Local SERPs, BrightLocal

Search Features

Google will shutdown Google Hire in 2020, TechCrunch
How Word uses Bing to tell you more about your writing, TechRepublic

Other Search

Google is decluttering Chrome by killing a bunch of features no one used, BGR