This day in search marketing history: February 15

Google releases ‘How to hire an SEO’ video

In 2017, Google added a new 11-minute video about how to hire an SEO to its Do you need an SEO? help document page.

Google’s Maile Ohye outlined the SEO hiring process in three steps:

• Conduct a two-way interview with your potential SEO. Check that they seem genuinely interested in you and your business.
• Check their references.
• Ask for a technical and search audit.

Read all about it in Google releases new video on how to hire an SEO consultant

Also on this day

Google denies mass search ad disapprovals or bugs with ad policy enforcement

2022: There were widespread reports of Google Ads disapproving ads and accounts, but Google said nothing was out of the ordinary.

Snapchat introduces attributable mid-roll ads for Snap Stories

2022: The ad product was in closed beta.

Google drops mobile app properties from GSC, reminds site owners to remove G+ integrations

2019: Google sent out notifications through Google Search Console telling them that mobile app properties and Google+ web integrations would no longer be supported.

Product card buttons pop up on desktop search

2019: Google Shopping product panel adds for “details”, “reviews” and “stores” options.

Bug with Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool showing ad scores and more data

2019: The Google ad diagnosis tool was down after showing data it should not have been showing. Google was investigating the issue.

Google Image Search removes View Image button and Search by Image feature

2018: After making a deal with Getty Images, Google revamped some of its image search features and user experience.

Google Maps for iOS catches up with Android version, adds driving directions, transit info & explore nearby

2018: A year after bringing real-time information within Google Maps for Android, Google released it for iOS devices.

Google’s latest search feature serves up fun facts about animals, plants, fruits & vegetables

2017: Adding the words “fun facts” to queries for animals, plants, fruits or vegetables would surface a list of facts atop search results.

Google’s Classic Link Operator Showing Signs Of Being Turned Off For Good?

2016: Google said their link operator wasn’t dead but continued to tell webmasters to use Google Search Console for the best Google link data source.

Wikimedia Foundation Secures $250,000 Grant For Search Engine Development

2016: Knight Foundation money would be used for Knowledge Engine project that aimed to discover “reliable and trustworthy public information on the Internet.”

Marin Software Files For IPO

2013: Marin had been around for a little less than six years and said its software platform helped manage more than $4 billion in digital ad spending.

Dear Google Alerts: Why Aren’t You Working?

2013: For several weeks, it had become nearly useless.

Google Commerce Search Is On The Chopping Block

2013: Despite attracting several high-profile retailers, it seemed Google was quietly shuttering Commerce Search.

Bing Ads Sticks With Improved Reporting Interface

2013: Users would no longer see the option to switch to the old version.

Search In Pics: Brin’s Kiteboat, Al Gore @ Google, Google+ Circus & Scary Android Eyes

2013: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Google: 62% Of Valentine’s Day Restaurant Searches Were Mobile

2012: Google also reported last-minute searches for flower-related terms grew 227% during the same week leading up to Valentine’s Day. 

DuckDuckGo Has Its First Million-Search Day

2012: Officially: 1,067,006 direct searches

If Google Is The New Microsoft, Facebook Is The New Google

2011: While Google in many ways had taken the place of Microsoft, Facebook had moved into the hot/feared space that Google occupied for a number of years.

Google Asks: Can Search Trends Predict The Oscars?

2011: “Black Swan” was the favorite for Best Picture based on Google search activity. (Spoiler: It didn’t win.)

Bing & Yahoo Align With Google’s Trademark Rules For Search Ads

2011: A policy change meant ads appearing on Bing and Yahoo could be triggered by trademarked keywords, though only authorized users could include trademarks in the text of their ads.

Blekko Partners With Stack Overflow To Improve Search Results

2011: 1-2 sentence teaser. 

Blekko Partners With Stack Overflow To Improve Search Results

2011: The agreement called for Stack Overflow’s community of programmers to “help improve and maintain programming-related slashtags,”

SearchReviews: A Search Engine For 40 Million Reviews (And Counting)

2011: Those 40 million reviews covered about 4 million products and came from more than 1,000 sites.

The State Of Online Marketing In Russia

2011: Yandex was the market leader, with a 64% market share, more than double Google’s 22% share.

Google Blurs The Line Between Paid & Unpaid Results Again

2010: Said Google: “Enhanced listings are labeled as advertisements via Google’s ‘Sponsored’ designation, and this experiment is intended to help us understand whether this is a useful experience for our users.”

Bing Gets Dedicated Button On New Windows (7) Phones

2010: Somewhat ironically, the largest source of Bing mobile queries at the time was the iPhone.

Google Is Testing SearchWiki As Way To Remove AdWords Ads

2009: Google confirmed it was running an experiment in which users could customize the ads that appeared in the “Sponsored Links” section of the search results page by deleting ad results.

Google Snubbed By Dow Jones

2008: Google wasn’t invited to join the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) when other, arguably less impressive companies were, in the first changes to the composition of the DJIA since 2004.

Porn Company Wants Google & Yahoo To Protect Kids From Pornography

2008: Co-founder of Vivid Entertainment wanted Google and Yahoo to do more in protecting children from accessing pornographic content.

Yahoo Video Gets An Upgrade

2008: Improvements included additional content including music, movies, TV, news, sports, and more.

Four Newspapers Join To Create Another Local Network For National Advertisers

2008: Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., the New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. formed a joint venture called quadrantOne.

Search in Pictures: Yahoo Hippies, Protesting Via Google, Vint Cerf With Ask

2008: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Details On Yahoo’s Advertiser & Publisher Group Leaked

2007: Its demand channels would focus on the advertiser, the supply channels would focus on publishers and the marketing products division would match and bridge the two channels.

Yahoo Launches Suggestion Boards – Digg Community Upset

2007: The boards let you “browse suggestions from other site visitors or post your own. Digg-style voting means we can quickly discover what’s most important to users.” 

Baidu 4th Quarter Profits Quintupled

2007: Baidu’s fourth quarter profits “soared 400 percent.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation To Protect Some YouTube Users Over Viacom’s DMCA Claims

2007: The EFF was asking those who had been falsely accused of posting Viacom copyrighted content on YouTube to contact them.

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

• 2021: How to audit Core Web Vitals by Tom Crewe
• 2019: Here’s a new script to find the best text for new ads using an n-gram analysis by Frederick Vallaeys
• 2019: Using Google Search Console to manage ‘search enhancement’ validation errors and employing the API by Detlef Johnson
• 2018: Making website speed and performance part of your SEO routine by Bobby Lyons
• 2018: Tracking the ROI of organic search for B2B by Janet Driscoll Miller
• 2017: Keyword SWOT analysis: Finding your content opportunities by Casie Gillette
• 2016: Franchise SEO: For Masochists Only by Andrew Shotland
• 2016: The Marriage Between Conversion Optimization & SEO by Winston Burton
• 2013: How To Get Analytics Right With PLAs by Benny Blum
• 2013: Deep Dive Into Bing Webmaster Tools – Part 3 Wrap Up By Josh Dreller
• 2012: The Future Of B2B Search: Start Preparing For Social SEO Now by Brad Neelan
• 2012: Landing Pages 3.0: How Content & Context Plays A More Meaningful Role by Scott Brinker
• 2012: Bringing Order To Sequence In Search Retargeting by Aaron Doades
• 2011: It’s Time To Optimize Your Links For Mobile by Julie Joyce
• 2011: Are You Ready For The Indian Internet Explosion? by Bill Hunt
• 2011: After Places & Deals, What Is Next For Facebook? by Ciarán Norris
• 2010: 2010: The Year Of Small Business Resurgence & (Finally!) Mobile Advertising by Tom Leung
• 2010 Maximizing ROI: The Wrong Game by George Michie
• 2010: Practical Long Tail Strategies For Enterprise-Class Paid Search Campaigns by Matt Lawson

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