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.
Google Local Service Ads sneakily show competitor ads after the searcher already selected your business to contact. Google Business Profiles is sending out new types of suspension notices Google is rolling out the about this image feature, which is useful but no one will really use it. Google SGE gained new about this link sources, but it requires a lot of clicks to get to. Google Ads launched new AR beauty ads.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
Google Local Services Ads Shows Competitors After You Selected A Business To Message
Google will show a searcher a list of competing businesses after you clicked on a Local Service Ad and sent a message to that business to learn more about doing business with them. That is right, Google will offer up a way to reach out to other competitors even after already selected a business and clicked on that ad.
New Google Business Profile Suspension Emails
Google has updated its suspension notice emails from Google Business Profiles. Now when your business is suspended, Google will send an email explaining why it was suspended, i.e. for a policy violation.
Google About This Image Now Live Recency Of Image, AI Details & More
In May, Google announced the “about this” feature will be coming to Google Images with “about this image.” It is now live and it shows history of the image, how the site uses and describes the image and meta data of the image (if available) including if AI-enhanced or made the image.
Google Search Generative Experience Gains “Supportive” Links In About This Result
Google announced yesterday that the Google Search Generative Experience has added new “supportive” links to the AI-powered answer snapshots. Google wrote, “you’ll now be able to see AI-generated descriptions of some sources, supported by information on high-quality sites that talk about that website. We’ll showcase links to these sites in the AI-generated description of the source.”
New Google AR Beauty Ads
Google has a new ad format called AR beauty ads. In Google Shopping ads you can now add the “try-on experience” in place of the search ad’s product image. “With AR beauty ads, brands have a new way to promote their lip and eye products (with foundation coming soon),” Google said.
BlueArray Porsche Taycan Parked Outside BrightonSEO
A couple of months ago, the BlueArray team parked a Porsche Taycan outside of the BrightonSEO event in the UK. They did something similar with a Tesla years before.
Other Great Search Threads:
Google testing of the Suggested Clips feature in sge. Suggested clips from same channel is different in SGE and serp. But in sge saw first time this feature., Khushal Bherwani on X
Gender neutral language impact on SEO?, WebmasterWorld
Spooky Google easter egg for Halloween, Barry Schwartz on X
Good news for GA4 / BigQuery fans! Item-scoped custom parameters are finally in the export! You’ll find them in the schema with the repeated field “item_params” under “items”, Simo Ahava on X
They don’t do anything, they don’t cause any problems for us. Keep them or make a graduation party and remove them while drinking something fancy. Up to you., John Mueller on X
Search Engine Land Stories:
Google Ads testing new overview dashboard for advertisers
Google rolls out about this image and more SGE links
Snap revenue up 5%, promises better ROI for advertisers
Amazon Ads launches AI image generation
Google AR beauty ads now let brands promote lip, eye products
Survey: Only 26% of SMBs are using AI for marketing
Google syntax graph merge for structured data
Data providers on the Google October 2023 core and spam update
Inside Google’s massive 2023 E-E-A-T Knowledge Graph update
B2B SEO tips: 4 ways to drive organic search success
Mastering content quality: The ultimate guide
Other Great Search Stories:
Industry & Business
Google Search Central Live in Zürich, 7 talks – 7 take-aways, Corina Burri
Google Search Monopoly Trial Shifts To Defense, Law360
Google searchers of yore win $23 million privacy penalty, The Register
Google, Microsoft, Anthropic and Open AI name first Executive Director of Frontier Model Forum, Google Blog
Microsoft and Alphabet Show Making Money From AI Isn’t Guaranteed, New York Times
Tech alliance in AI standards push to fill ‘gap’ in regulation, Financial Times (Sub)
The Google trial is happening partially in secret. That’s unacceptable., Slate
Google and Microsoft earnings reveal Wall Street’s new demands for AI, Axios
Inside Google’s Plan to Stop Apple From Getting Serious About Search, New York Times
Links & Content Marketing
A Win Is A Win: How To Measure Success In Link-Building, Go Fish Digital
Tools to help you Monitor your Trust Flow, Majestic
Local & Maps
Android Auto may soon support syncing your phone wallpaper, 9to5Google
New LSA Categories, GBP Attributes, and More Updates from Google, BrightLocal
Mobile & Voice
Apple Has Discussed Using Vision Pro for Mental Health Diagnosis, Treatment, The Information
Apple may use Vision Pro for mental health treatment, AppleInsider
Google Play’s policy update cracks down on ‘offensive’ AI apps, disruptive notifications, TechCrunch
SEO
AI bots in SEO: To block, or not to block, Yoast
Disable Website Feeds in Google Merchant Center, If, FeedArmy
PPC
4 Genius Ways to Drive More Calls from Google Ads, WordStream
Are Google Ads Worth the Cost? A Data-Driven Look at the Pros and Cons, Hopskip Media
Discover programmatic advertising with Microsoft Invest, Microsoft Advertising
Remarketing Vs. Retargeting: Are They The Same Thing?, Search Engine Journal
Search Features
What we learned about SGE, Bard and Gemini from Google’s Q3 2023 Earnings call, Marie Haynes
Other Search
Grammar checking at Google Search scale, Google Research Blog
AI researchers uncover ethical, legal risks to using popular data sets, Washington Post
Blow for Sunak’s AI summit as leaked document shows UK scaling back research plans, POLITICO
Feedback:
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