This day in search marketing history: January 29
Google penalizes a link network, plus: paid search spending, Google warns about article directories, Yelp ratings in Google AdWords and more.
Google penalizes French link network
In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted, “Today we’re taking action on a French link network that violates our quality guidelines (Buzzea).”
Buzzea was less than thrilled about being called a link network, saying they “oppose this assertion since we never stopped wanting to keep the ethical side of sponsored articles focusing on quality and natural links created.” As a result of the penalty, Buzzea officially called it quits.
Read all about it in Google Takes Down Another Link Network, France’s Buzzea.
This was hardly the first link network Google had gone after:
- Google Squashes Backlinks.com, Another Link Network Outed By Google’s Matt Cutts
- Google Eliminates Another Link Network, BuildMyRank.com – Just One Of Several?
- Google Busts Yet Another Link Network: Anglo Rank
- Google May Have Penalized Another Major Link Network: Ghost Rank 2.0
- Did Google Just Penalize Another Link Network? SAPE Links
- “Text Link Ads” Was Latest Hit By Google’s Actions Against Link Sellers
- Google Eliminates Another Link Network, BuildMyRank.com – Just One Of Several?
- Google Zaps Another Link Network, ‘Several Thousand’ Link Sellers Hit
Buzzea would be just the first of several link networks Google identified and took action against later in 2014:
- Feb. 6: Google Penalized A Germany Agency & Their Clients For Link Schemes, Says Matt Cutts
- Feb. 24: Google Targets Two Polish Link Networks While Continuing To Target German Link Networks
- March 14: Google Penalizes Two German Link Networks; One Being efamous
- March 15: Google Penalizes Italian & Spanish Link Networks
- March 19: Google’s Matt Cutts: We’ve Taken Action On A Large Guest Blog Network
- July 3: Google Hits Poland Again With Link Network Penalties
- Aug. 18: Google Targets Two European Link Networks
- Nov. 24: Google Takes Action On More Link Networks In Poland
Also on this day
Facebook testing brand safety topic exclusions for advertisers
2021: Citing advertisers’ brand safety concerns, Facebook said the feature would allow marketers to choose whether to show their ads alongside potentially sensitive content.
Google has stopped deduplicating right-sidebar featured snippets
2020: URLs shown in featured snippets that appeared in the right rail of Google desktop results would continue to be included in the main organic listings.
Video: Lisa Barone on the early days of SEO blogging
2020: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he chatted with Barone about the older days of SEO and then moved on to how her career has changed over the years.
How to know when it’s time to pay for search analytics tools
2019: Search marketing experts offered feedback on when to pay for search analytics tools, factors to consider and making the most out of what you buy.
Google adds voice input and spoken results to mobile web search
2019: Google added a microphone to the Google.com search field on Android phones to enable mobile web voice search.
Tell Google which report you are really missing in new Google Search Console
2018: A button in the beta Search Console explained why all of the old reports had not been migrated.
Merkle Q4 2017: Search ad click growth fell, ad spend rose 23% across Google, Bing, Yahoo
2018: Bing and Yahoo saw search ad spend jump 32% year-over-year. Google spend slowed slightly from Q3.
Adobe: Paid Search Spend Growth Slowed In Q4, Mobile Continued To Eat Into Desktop
2016: Retail advertising spend on mobile Shopping ads nearly doubled year-over-year in Q4.
Search In Pics: GoogleBot Band, Inside Out Post-It Art & Hangouts Pillow
2016: 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’s Matt Cutts: Don’t Try To Build Links Through Article Directories
2014: That was Cutts’ answer to “Should I build links using article directories?”
Report: Google Close (Again) To EU Antitrust Settlement
2014: Two previous antitrust settlements were strenuously opposed and thus defeated by Google critics and competitors.
Google May Be Forced To Pay $1 Billion To Patent Troll
2014: Google was asked to pay $15.8 million in 2012. The plaintiffs were also seeking ongoing royalties, which the court awarded.
People, Videos, News: Twitter Adds New Search Filters
2014: There were also “photos,” “people you follow” and “near you” filters to further refine results.
Seattle Seahawks Take The Lead In 33 States For Bing Super Bowl Searches
2014: Bing also measured player searches, with Broncos’ quarterback Peyton Manning winning 72% of the searches over Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson.
Bing Rewards Program Now Available On iOS & Android Devices
2014: iOS and Android users could earn Bing Rewards credits (toward gift cards for brands like Amazon, Xbox and Dominos) by performing searches on their phone.
Advertisers Increased PLA Budgets By 600% In Q4; Trend Likely To Continue
2013: Those advertisers were rewarded with higher click-through rates and lower cost-per-click than text ads.
Study: Reviews & Images Drive Clicks In Mobile
2012: Images and reviews were very important in capturing users’ eye movements and clicks.
A Year Later Even Google Surprised By Success Of Click-To-Call
2011: Google was seeing millions of calls every month and it had become a core part of a large number of mobile search ad campaigns.
Google Mobile Image Search Gets Popular Images
2010: When you visited Google Images on a smartphone, you would see “popular images” and a link to browse more popular images.
Yelp Ratings Appear In Google AdWords
2010: Google confirmed it was “testing a feature in which text ads on Google search results pages may include star ratings and links to third party sites that have reviewed the advertiser’s business.”
Microsoft Earnings Beat Estimates Online Services Post Loss, More On Bing And The iPhone
2010: Online Services, which housed online advertising and Bing, reported $581 million in revenue vs. $609 million the prior year ago.
Goojje, A Google China Knockoff
2010: It is a basic search engine, playing on the Google name and Google logo.
Google AdWords Testing New Interface
2009: The new interface looked similar to the charting/graphing system that Google Analytics used.
Google Toolbar For Firefox Adds Chrome-Like “Most Visited Sites” Tab
2009: The sites you visited most often were listed when you opened a new blank tab in Firefox.
YouTube Searchers: It’s All About The Music
2009: Hitwise research suggested that 72% of the site’s Top 50 search terms from December 2008 were music-related.
Live Search “Auto Suggest” Add-On For Firefox Released
2009: You could add it to your Firefox search box manually via the add-on from Live Search.
Google TV Ads Tells How DVRs Affect Your Ads
2009: Google’s TV Ads team announced the addition of new metrics detailing time-shifted ad viewings.
Martin Schaedel (Lazerzubb) Killed In Plane Crash
2009: Known widely by his online handle lazerzubb, he was a fixture at various events.
Google Street View Car Kills Bambi, Removes Pictures Afterward
2009: Google said the image was removed because of several requests from users using the Street View image removal option.
Google’s Position Six Penalty (Or Bug) A Reality
2008: Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed the behavior and said Google had already begun reversing it.
Microsoft adCenter To Power Ads On Wall Street Journal Digital Network
2008: This was a huge deal for Microsoft, giving their ad program exposure to 20 million unique users and over 330 million page views per month.
Byzantine Legal Fight For Control Of Ask.com Parent IAC
2008: It was “open warfare” between IAC CEO Barry Diller and Liberty Media, one of its largest backers and investors.
Once Again, A Google Murder Case
2008: A UK woman was convicted of trying to murder her husband after researching methods on Google.
Google’s Brin Calls China Censorship A “Net Negative”
2007: Brin was arguing that some information is better than no information.
Google TV Rumors Not Legit
2007: ‘Twas a hoax.
Google To Build Second Life Metaverse On Google Earth In China?
2007: Just lots of rumors.
Topix.net And Tribune In Mutual Classifieds Syndication Deal
2007: Tribune had struck a deal that had Topix providing content and a back-end platform for general merchandise classifieds on their newspaper sites.
News Search + Personalization + Social Media = Wikio
2007: Wikio blended articles from major news web sites and blogs with commentary and tags from Wikio users.
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.
- 2020: Beyond Google and Facebook advertising: 17 ad platforms you should try by John Lincoln
- 2020: Who’s winning on Amazon right now? by Anders Hjorth
- 2019: Save your grant account from suspension with this script by Daniel Gilbert
- 2018: Are you getting credit for all of your organic visits from GMB? by Greg Gifford
- 2018: Customer loyalty: A key ingredient for successful local search results by Wesley Young
- 2016: 3 Reasons B2B Marketers Must Embrace Mobile… Now by Patricia Hursh
- 2016: No-Hype SEO: A Realistic Formula For Making SEO Work For Your Business, Part 2 by Daniel Faggella
- 2015: How Medical Practices & Practitioners Should Set Up Google My Business by Will Scott
- 2015: 5 Search Ad Copy Resolutions For 2015 by Mona Elesseily
- 2015: Big Digital Marketing Resolutions For 2016 by Alistair Dent
- 2014: How To Optimize Database-Driven B2B Websites by Harrison Jones
- 2014: 11 Reasons Link Building Is A Futile Waste Of Time — And One Big Reason It Isn’t by Eric Ward
- 2013: What The Closure Of UK Malls & Main Street Retailers Means For Online by Chris Liversidge
- 2013: The Link Shrink Is In: 3 Crazy Linking Assumptions by Eric Ward
- 2013: Why You Need To Treat Your Social Media Strategy Like Your Content Strategy by Jordan Kasteler
- 2010: The Algorithm Chasers by Kim Krause Berg
- 2010: Click To Conversion Time (Part I): What This Metric Can Tell You About Your Clientele by Siddharth Shah
- 2009: SMB’s Need More “Local” Outreach by David Mihm
- 2009: A Look At Article Directories and Their Influence in Organic Rankings by Michael Gray
- 2009: Obama Inauguration Sets Standard For Live Video Streaming by Eric Papczun
- 2008: 15 Fundamental Truths About Social Media Marketing by Glen Allsopp
- 2008: No Recession For Link Building by Eric Ward
- 2007: Are You Linkbaiting The Right Audience by Eric Ward
Related stories
New on Search Engine Land
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.