Want to know which Googler found out that Google was no longer honoring the rel=prev/next? It seems it was Gary Illyes, a Google webmaster trends analyst who we often cover over here, was the individual who noticed this and escalated it to the public.

John Mueller from Google said it was Gary who found this out:

Gary also admitted to it:

And he was also the messenger, although John first told us on his account it isn’t supported, Gary was the person who wrote the official tweet:

So there you go – we now know who at Google figured this out. For all we know, we wouldn’t have found out until 2025 about this otherwise.

Forum discussion at Twitter.