This day in search marketing history: January 22
Google deduplicates featured snippets, plus: Facebook and Twitter signals, blacklisting domains, Wikipedia nofollows links and more.
Google deduplicates featured snippets
In 2020, Google rolled out a global change to featured snippets that resulted in any URL only appearing once on the first page of search results, instead of twice.
Google said there would be no change to its overall set of web search results. There would still be 10 unique listings, as before. It’s just that Google would be deduplicating and no longer show any of those listings twice.
Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan announced the news via Twitter:
If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.
@dannysullivan
In November, Google was testing removing a site’s normal snippet when a featured snippet was displayed. Google even tested this back in 2017.
Read about it in Listings that earn featured snippets will not repeat on the first page of Google search.
Also on this day
Google Search launches updated mobile design and interface
2021: The updated interface aimed to make the search interface easier to read for searchers while providing a cleaner and more modern experience.
Google My Business updates flag review feature
2021: The new form asked the business owner, “Why are you reporting this review?” Then it offered multiple options.
Google might remove search in Australia if forced to pay to link to sites
2021: “The latest version of the Code requires Google to pay to link to news sites, breaking a fundamental principle of how the web works,” said Mel Silva, Google Australia’s managing director.
Contextual links in featured snippets may present new opportunities and risks
2021: The potential for more links to appear in this high-visibility search result feature had SEOs concerned about click-through rates, brand safety and how to optimize for it.
Google’s mobile-first indexing guide update emphasizes the same content across site versions
2020: New guidelines were added in several areas, including crawling, structured data, visual content, and best practices.
Video: Josef Sperzel talks technical SEO and using Python to pull data
2020: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he chats with Sperzel about how he got into technical SEO, site architecture and spider crawling issues, and more.
Google offers improved GMB sign-up flow for service-area businesses
2019: Improved process would make it easier to set up service areas on GMB.
Small business scammer shut down by Google lawsuit
2019: Defendant firm had falsely represented that it was acting on behalf of Google.
New Google Search Console may be rolling out for everyone now
2018: Most users were able to see their properties in the new Search Console beta.
Sergei Eisenstein Google doodle honors Soviet film director known as the ‘Father of Montage’
2018: The animated image highlighted the director’s technique for creating montage film effects.
Court Documents Show Google Paid Apple $1 Billion For Safari Default Placement
2016: According to court documents and testimony in Oracle’s copyright suit against Google, “Apple received $1 billion from its rival in 2014.”
Google Down 1 Billion PC Searches From 2014, But Mobile Volumes Likely Way Up
2016: Including “powered by” search, Google controlled 64.8% of US search query volume, while Bing powered 32.2% of organic search.
Search In Pics: Google Dance Shirts, Google’s Micro Library & Revealing Screen Shot
2016: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.
Wilbur Scoville Google Doodle Marks 151st Birthday Of Man Behind The Scoville Scale
2016: The interactive doodle included an animated Scoville, pepper facts and a game pitting an ice-cream cone against different pepper types.
Google Suggesting Firefox Users Change Their Search Engine & Home Page
2015: Yahoo won the deal to be the default search engine in Firefox in November; now after losing some search share, Google was fighting back.
Bing Ads New Bid Preview Tool Lets You See Effects Of Bid Changes In Real Time
2015: Advertisers could see how ads would display with bid increases before committing to new keyword bids.
Bing Also Testing Google’s Search Design Interface
2015: Days after Yahoo was caught testing a Google search design interface, Bing is also caught testing it.
YP Introduces Cross-Device Retargeting With Local Search Query Data
2015: It combined the company’s high-intent local query data with cross-screen behavior and ad exchange mobile display inventory.
Google Webmaster Tools Crawl Errors Reports Now Showing Errors On Final Redirect URL
2014: The crawl errors report showed errors on the final URL of the redirect, as opposed to the origin URL of the redirect.
Google’s Matt Cutts: We Don’t Use Twitter Or Facebook Social Signals To Rank Pages
2014: A video answered the question: “Are Facebook and Twitter signals part of the ranking algorithm?” Short answer: no.
Google Adds A Knowledge Graph Popup To Search Results, But Is It Good For Site Owners?
2014: The data provided background on the website listed in the search result, and it appeared in a small popup window that’s accessible from a clickable link on the second line of the result.
Yahoo Search Goes Secure, Taking Referrer Data — An Indicator Of Yahoo’s Popularity — With It
2014: That meant more protection for searchers but what did the loss of referrer data mean for search marketers?
Google Now Changing The Top Search Filters Based On Query
2014: The options you saw at the top might differ or be in a different order based on the query you entered into Google’s search box.
Study: Display Ads Drive Search Clicks After Two Weeks
2014: Display advertising did generate more search volume, clicks and conversions.
Google Panda Update Version #24; 1.2% Of Search Queries Impacted
2013: A new Panda refresh.
Report: 25 Percent Of Search Clicks Now From Mobile Devices
2013: Desktop searches remained level from Q3 2012 to Q4 2012, while mobile experienced an increase in search share.
Google Earnings Show Halt Of CPC Decline, At Least Temporarily
2013: The cost-per-click across Google’s advertising business increased approximately 2% in the fourth quarter, as compared to the third quarter, after several consecutive quarters of decline.
Google To Replace Black Top Bar With Gray Colored Bar?
2013: Since June 2011, Google’s top bar had a black background color with white/gray text overlaid.
Bing Tags Expands, Makes Pages Linked To Your Profile Public
2013: You (or others) could tag pages to appear associated with you in Bing’s search results. This would be visible to those who had a Facebook account connected to Bing.
Are Search Engines Driving Libraries To Extinction? Not Quite Yet
2013: The traditional role played by libraries, including access to print works and professional librarians, was still important to most.
Google’s “Find Hotels By Travel Time” Offers Some Of That “Innovation” Google Was Talking About
2012: Transit time search was only available in cities where Google had partnered with local transit agencies to integrate their data into Google Maps.
Google May Let You Blacklist Domains To Fight Spam
2011: Matt Cutts confirmed that Google had discussed giving searchers the ability to remove domains from its search results.
Google’s Matt Cutts On 2010 & Looking Back At 2009
2010: Cutts answered a question about where he thought Google and search would be in 2010. In another video, he re-created his presentation on the “state of the index.”
comScore: US Has Most Searches; China Slowest Growth; Google Tops Worldwide In 2009
2010: Globally, searches grew overall by 46%.
Google Adds More Answers & Info To Search Results
2010: Google added an events hCalendar microformat and started highlighting answers in the snippets.
Google Founders To Sell 10 Million Shares Over Five Years
2010: This was part of a plan to diversify their portfolios over time.
Google 4th On Forbes’ Best Companies To Work For List
2010: Google also ranked fourth on the list in 2009, after being first in 2007 and 2008.
Ballmer Critical Of Google’s China Decision
2010: Ballmer called it an “irrational business decision” on Google’s part.
Satellite Images Of Haiti Earthquake From Google & Bing Maps
2010: How to see before and after images, taken by satellite, as well as 360-degree ground-level videos.
Bing Maps Challenge: Try Silverlight Version, Maybe Win $100
2010: Microsoft wanted people to download (or update Sliverlight) so they could use the new and improved Bing Maps.
Search In Pictures: Google China, Yahoo Character & Google Pillows
2010: The latest images culled from the web, 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 Revenues Beat Street, Economic Uncertainty Lingers
2009: Google reported revenues of $5.70 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, an increase of 18% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.
The Rise (And Fall?) Of Real-Time Search
2009: For all the effort to put value into real-time search, particularly where Twitter was concerned – Twitter itself may have put an end to those efforts by announcing new limits on its API.
Microsoft Announces Q2 Results, 5,000 Layoffs
2009: The layoff rumors were true, though the numbers were less than anticipated.
Google Wants To Help Marketers Do More With Less
2009: The Google AdWords team has launched a new mini-site to help advertisers reach their goals in light of the current economy.
Job Search Engines: The Hottest Thing Going
2009: Job search was the fastest-growing search category in the U.S. in 2008.
Obama Is “Failure” At Google & “Miserable Failure” At Yahoo
2009: President Obama inherited all the links containing anchor text with the words “miserable failure” in them, aimed at former president Bush.
Yahoo Search Update: First Update Of 2008
2008:Yahoo had been rolling out updates to their “crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms” over the past couple days.
Publicis & Google In Technology, Media-Planning Partnership
2008: “Google would exchange its technological know-how for Publicis’s analytical and media planning expertise.”
After A Month, Google Fails The One Hour Guaranteed Press Response Test
2008: The fast response was meant for “corporate policy issues.”
Google Walks Down Fashion Avenue: The Oogle Sari
2008: A design in Satya Paul’s collection was named “Oogle sari” that looked like a sari
made up of the Google web search results.
Chinese Kissing Couple Sues Subway Operator For Uploading Video To YouTube
2008: The video reportedly drew over 15,000 hits in just two days and apparently embarrassed the couple tremendously.
Yahoo Search Index Update – January 2007
2007: Yahoo officially confirmed recent speculations of an index update taking place.
Google’s Blacklist Of Phishing Sites Contained Bank Information & More Confidential Details
2007: Google has quietly removed the information, which included usernames and passwords of individuals, including credentials for accounts at banks and other financial institutions.
Wikipedia Nofollows Links Again – Due To SEOs Abusing Wikipedia
2007: This was due to a discussion of a new SEO contest, where editors were warned of an onslaught of spam.
BBC To Partner With Google On Video Content Deal
2007: Google would make some of BBC’s content available through Google Video and possibly YouTube.
Google Germany Gone Kaput?
2007: That time when Google Germany disappeared due to google.de domain registrations shenanigans.
Google Seeking To Place Ads In Video Games; In Talks To Buy Adscape Media
2007: Google was “always considering new ways to extend Google’s advertising program to benefit our users, advertisers and publishers” – including in-game advertising.
Google To Provide Downloadable E-Books
2007: They hoped to “allow readers to download entire books to their computers in a format that they could read on screen or on mobile devices such as a Blackberry.”
Google Adds Sponsored Links To Your Search History
2007: Google added your sponsored link click activity to Google Search History.
SuggestLocal Offers Collaboration Tools For Local Search
2007: It sought to solve the problem of figuring out where to go and what to do with a group of colleagues or friends.
From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)
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.
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About the author
Goodwin has been editing and writing about the latest developments and trends in search and digital marketing since 2007. He previously was Executive Editor of Search Engine Journal (from 2017 to 2022), managing editor of Momentology (from 2014-2016) and editor of Search Engine Watch (from 2007 to 2014). He has spoken at many major search conferences and virtual events, and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts.