This month was packed with a handful of unconfirmed Google search algorithm updates, as you will see in the bulleted list below. In fact, there may be a more subtle update going on now, which I did not write about but I am on the edge of potentially covering – it was around February 1st and 2nd. We also saw a bunch of manual actions have the backlog resolved. Also, we saw a slew of new news and discover manual actions get delivered in the past week.

Google Search Console launched a new URL inspection API and a new page experience desktop report this past month. Also, now the Search Console snapshot in the search results work for domain properties. Google released a new meta robots tag named indexifembedded.

We learned more about when Google dedups top stories in web search and we saw some new data around that. Plus we have a ton of SEO stories, link stories, user interface tests, local news and details and much more.

The ongoing WebmasterWorld thread is talking about some of the early February light fluctuations still, as I mentioned above.

You can also check out the January report if you missed that one.

Here is what you may have missed this past month:

Google Algorithms:
January 22nd Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Update
Another Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Update (January 19th & 20th)
Google Search Ranking Update January 14th & 15th (Unconfirmed)
Google Search Ranking Update On January 11th (Unconfirmed)
Google Penalties:
Google: Manual Actions Backlogged & Delayed Responses
Google Clearing Out The Manual Actions Backlog?
Google Penalizing News Publishers With Manual Actions For Discover & Google News
Many SEOs Will Buy Links In 2022 Despite Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

Google Search Console:
Google Search Console Launches URL Inspection API
Desktop Page Experience Report Now In Google Search Console
Google Search Console Domain Properties Can Now Be In Search Results
Breadcrumb & HowTo Google Search Console Errors Reporting Changed
Google Search Console Logging Bug May Result In Drop In Image Search Performance Data
Google Search Console Users and Permissions Issue Fixed

Google SEO:
Google Deduplication Of Top Stories From Web Search Results
New Google Robots Tag indexifembedded: Control Indexing With Embedded Content
Some Sites Seeing Massive Crawl Spikes From Googlebot
Google Reiterates That A Spike In Crawling Unrelated To Upcoming Algorithm Updates
Google: We Don’t Push Out Search Algorithm Rollouts Right Before Weekends
Google Product Reviews Update Not Designed For Reviews Of Places Or Things
Google Product Reviews Update Will Expand, May Use Machine Learning & Can Be Incorporated In Core Updates
Google Page Experience & Core Web Vitals Label Probably Won’t Go Live
Google Merchant Center Adds Auto-Tagging To Free Listings
Google: There Is No Schema For Product Images In Web Search
Recipe Schema Markup No Longer Supports Ranges For Cook, Prep & Total Time
Google Requires Both Product & Car Markup For Review Snippets In Google Search
Google May Share Your Google Discover Likes Anonymously With Publishers
Google: We Don’t Understand If Content Is Equivalent When In A Different Language
Google Might Update & Even Rename The Webmaster Guidelines In 2022
Will Google Target Fluff Content In Search?
Google: Hosting Companies Should Serve 500 Status Code On Robot Detection Interstitial

Google Links:
How Does Location Of Internal Links On A Page Matter For SEO & Google Search
Google: We Do Not Give Full Weight To All Links
Google: We Don’t Count Links On Domain Level

Google User Interface Changes & Tests:
Google Adds Shops Section To Search Results
Google Tests Search Results Without Descriptions Again
Cameos on Google Is Going Away
Google “People Search Next” Search Refinements
Google Mobile Search Tests Colorful Magnifying Glass In Search Bar
Google Images Tests Color Themed Related Images Design
Google Tests Lens Button In Search Bar On Desktop Search
Google Tests New Visual Stories Designs
Google Tests Trending Videos In Mobile Search
Google People Also Ask With Read Full Answer Button

Google Local:
Google Maps Details Review Spam Policy Enforcement Systems
Google Maps Pins With Review Snippets
Google Promotes Pointy From Google In Business Profiles
Google Local Pack Listen & Translate Feature
Google Deprecating The Google My Business API On April 20, 2022
Google Location Search Pack With Things To Do, Airports & Transit Stops
Google Business Profile Makes New Mangers & Owners Wait 7 Days To Manager Profiles
Google Maps “Updates From Customers” A Nightmare For Business Listings?
Google Local Service Ads Allows Alternative Background Checks Process
Google Business Profile Edit Large Overlay In Search Results

Other Google:
Both Google Ads & Microsoft Bing Ads Revenues Up 32%
67% Of Google Searches Have Duplicate Top Stories & Web Results URLs; Newzdash
Google Wants To Make Crawling More Efficient & Environmental Friendly

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.