Search Engine Land » SEO » This day in search marketing history: March 16

This day in search marketing history: March 16

Google to sunset Universal Analytics, plus: Google's doorway page penalty, over-optimization, Chrome’s paid link penalty ends and more.

Danny Goodwin on March 16, 2023 at 12:01 am | Reading time: 9 minutes

Chat with SearchBot

Google Univeral Analytics: The beginning of the end

In 2022, Google announced its plan to deprecate Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. (That’s 106 days from today.)

Previously processed data in Universal Analytics will be stored for at least six months after the deprecation date.

Why was Google making the switch to Google Analytics 4? Because it didn’t rely on cookies and used an event-based data model for measurement.

“Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies. This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete.”

Google also announced that Universal Analytics 360 properties would stop processing hits on Oct. 1, 2023. But on Oct. 27, 2022, Google announced it was delaying that sunset date to July 1, 2024.

Also on this day

Google business profile reviews posting bugs should be resolved soon

2022: Google confirmed there was an issue with some reviews not posting and those reviews would be processed by the end of the week.

Google’s free hotel booking links arrive on Search and Maps

2022: The company was also adding reporting capabilities, support for hotel rates in Google Business Profiles and rolling out Local Posts to hotels.

Microsoft’s Automotive Ads get more placements, roll out globally

2022: With this expansion, the format could also display in the Microsoft Audience Network, the Microsoft Autos Marketplace and the Windows search bar.

Google My Business releases tool to manage your reviews

2021: Previously, there was no real way to see the status of reviews you submitted for a takedown in an organized fashion

More PPC advertisers pause campaigns amid coronavirus upheaval

2020: “It’s surprising how fast things have changed in just a couple of days.”

Google to show which local businesses ‘temporarily closed’ in Search, Maps amid coronavirus outbreak

2020: Google said it would make it possible for businesses to easily mark themselves as ‘temporarily closed’ using Google My Business.

Bing’s coronavirus tracker filters data, news and video by region

2020: ‘Coronavirus’ results pages became ad-free resource hubs on Bing, Google and other search engines.

Video: Tony Wright on SEO attribution and reputation management

2020: Wright said it’s often easier to reach out to those who are upset with you versus trying to outrank them.

Search in Pics: Android totem poles, Google’s book tree & printed faces on lattes

2018: 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 launches location extension display ads for local businesses

2017: Some other display ads could be converted automatically to the new format when users were nearby.

Google Home gets ‘Beauty & The Beast’ promo, but Google says it’s not an ad

2017: Appeared to be the first-ever commercialization of Google’s home assistant product.

Google to boost mobile-friendly algorithm this May

2016: Google said mobile-friendly sites would “not be impacted by this update.”

DuckDuckGo launches Directions! feature with option to use multiple map apps

2016: DuckDuckGo’s feature let users choose from Apple, Bing, Here, OpenStreetMap or Google Maps to get directions.

Google To Launch New Doorway Page Penalty Algorithm

2015: Google announced they were releasing a new “ranking adjustment” to their doorway page classifier to better handle doorway pages in the search results.

Google Now To Get API So All Developers Can Integrate Their Content

2015: This would allow any app developer or publisher to integrate with the service.

Bing Puts March Madness Bracket In Search Results, Predicts Kentucky To Win Championship

2015: Search results included a complete men’s college basketball tournament bracket, along with Bing’s game-by-game predictions.

Too Much SEO? Google’s Working On An “Over-Optimization” Penalty For That

2012: Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed.”

Google Chrome’s Paid Link Penalty Now Lifted

2012: Google had lifted the 60-day paid link penalty Google Chrome was given the first week of January.

Google: No, New TLDs Won’t Give You A Ranking Boost

2012: “I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either.”

Microsoft adCenter Re-Intros Yahoo Rich Ads, Tweaks Negative Keywords And Landing Page Functionality

2012: The re-introduction of Yahoo RAIS appeared to be Microsoft’s answer to Google’s sitelinks extensions and product listing ads.

Search In Pics: Google Village, Tom Hanks At Yahoo & Google Cake

2012: 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.

Transcript: Google & Bing On Whitelists & Exception Lists

2011: Google’s Matt Cutts and Bing’s Sasi Parthasarathy spoke about whether they had whitelists.

Facebook Patents Social Search (Courtesy Of Friendster)

2011: Originally filed in October 2004, the patent was for a system that used social connections and clicks within the network to determine search-ranking relevance.

Compete Confirms Bing Gains

2011: Google and Yahoo modestly lost share, AOL and Ask were flat, Bing gained.

Cars, Restaurants, Financial Services Top Study Of “Complaint Searches”

2011: When it came to raw complaint searches, nothing beat the auto industry.

Google: Mobile Query Growth “Dramatically Higher” Than PC

2010: Google’s mobile traffic growth had been 5X over the past two years.

Nexus One Comes To AT&T, Rogers But Runs Into Trademark Trouble

2010: The US PTO refused to let Google register the mark on the basis of potential confusion with a pre-existing trademark from a telecom company that provided voice and data services.

Bing Hits All-Time High Market Share: Nielsen

2010: Bing’s market share in February was 12.5%, an all-time high that continued Bing’s overall growth since it launched in 2009.

Why Is Ask Really Hiding Their Ads Referrer Data

2010: Ask said they moved to a new system named PureLeads.

Twitter To Launch Ad Platform On April 13th?

2010: Spoiler alert: Yes.

Google Puts Ads On Hosted News Stories

2009: Google’s announcement seemed to indicate that the ads would always show beneath the story.

Picasa Gains Google AdWords Ads

2009: You would find the ads at the top of the image results when you conducted searches for pictures in Picasa’s web albums.

Yahoo Search Marketing Adds Enhanced Targeting Features

2009: New features included enhanced geotargeting, ad scheduling, demographic targeting, and added bid adjustments based on those targeting features.

Privacy Concerns, Online Ad Targeting On Apparent Collision Course

2009: US internet users appeared uncomfortable with online tracking and targeting at a time when publishers and search engines were more aggressively embracing it.

comScore: 63 Million On Mobile Internet, 35 Percent Using It Daily

2009: While the highest frequency users were on smartphones, comScore said that 70% of the traffic was coming from so-called feature phones (conventional cellphones).

Google Phone Has Been Confirmed By Google Exec

2007: Isabel Aguilera, Google’s chief executive in Spain and Portugal, confirmed that there was a Google phone in the works.

GOOG Acquisitions: Trendalyzer & Adscape Media

2007: Trendalyzer converted “boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.” Adscape was an in-game advertising company.

Microsoft’s Ballmer Calls Google One Hit Wonder, Mocks Management Skills & Criticizes Future Growth

2007: He mocked Google’s personal time concept.

Microsoft’s Tellme Acquisition ‘Accelerates’ Mobile Search Competition

2007: It was a “moment of acceleration” and intensifying competition for mobile search and marketing.

Gary Price of Ask.com & ResourceShelf Interviewed

2007: Gary was commonly referred to as the man who replaced Jeeves the butler.

Travelocity: “Profound Mistake To Think We’ve Figured Out How To Measure ROI On Search”

2007: Travelocity found that it was a waste to buy non-branded search terms.

Summize: Using Heatmaps In Product Search Results

2007: Shopping search engine aggregated product reviews from Amazon, but presented product sentiment in a highly visual way using heatmaps.

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.

< March 15 | Search Marketing History | March 17 >

Add Search Engine Land to your Google News feed.