This day in search marketing history: March 21

Google stopped supporting rel=next/prev and forgot to tell everyone

In 2019, we learned Google had stopped supporting the rel=next/prev markup it had introduced in 2011.

Worse than that, Google hadn’t been using it for indexing for a “number of years,” according to Google’s John Mueller.

All the while, Google continued to recommend using it, so SEOs, publishers and developers invested resources into implementing and maintaining the markup – all for no benefit.

Google apologized for the “oversight” a day later.

Also on this day

Google Ads Editor version 2.0 supports Performance Max campaigns

2022: The update also included support for custom actions and action triggers, conversion goals, shared audiences and more.

Patent suggests how CTR, time on page could be used in search rankings (if Google did that sort of thing)

2019: But no, this didn’t confirm Google was using engagement metrics in rankings.

Google’s neural matching versus RankBrain: How Google uses each in search

2019: Neural matching helped Google better relate words to searches, while RankBrain helped Google better relate pages to concepts.

Google launches News Initiative subscriptions lab for publishers

2019: The company also announced new fact-checking tools and other efforts to stop the spread of ‘misinformation.’

Bing upgrades text-to-speech, expands intelligent answers, improves visual search

2019: The latest upgrades made to Bing around voice, image and answer search.

Survey finds Google Home users do more, have ‘far higher’ satisfaction than Alexa owners

2019: Alexa devices dominated, but higher Google Home NPS scores suggested it would have better word of mouth and could gain market share.

Amazon to introduce video ads in mobile-app search results — report

2019: The buy reportedly required a minimum $35,000 budget.

Google: Using non-English URLs for non-English websites is fine

2018: Google was able to crawl, index and rank them.

Google News Initiative kicks off with Subscribe With Google, other efforts

2018: Subscribers would see articles from their subscribed publications higher in the search results and be logged in to those publications across devices.

Google’s new tappable shortcuts eliminate the need to search on mobile

2017: The shortcuts offered quick answers on weather, sports and entertainment info.

AdWords Brings Keyword Bid Simulator Estimates Into Reporting Columns

2014: From the keyword tab, advertisers could add several columns to their reporting from the Bid simulator section offered in the Customize Columns menu.

What Do Users Really Think Of The New Google Design?

2014: 33 of 50 participants in a usability study preferred the “clean,” “fresh” and “uncluttered” new version.

Google Alerts Adds Filters For Regions & Languages

2014: You could tell Google you only wanted alerts for specific keyword phrases within a specific region or country or a specific language.

Part Two: If Google Was A Guy (Video)

2014: It mocked searchers, Google Doodles, Google Glass and Bing.

Search In Pics: Sergey Brin With Ed Snowden, Google Water Balloon Launcher & More

2014: 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.

Topless Nude Photo Makes It Way To The Google Knowledge Graph

2013: When you searched for [Angel Tompkins], the image shown for her was from a site that appeared to be a spam blog with nude images of people.

Google Alerts: Still Broken

2013: Another open letter about how poorly the service was working.

Bing Snapshot Grows To Understand People, Places & Things With “Satori” Expansion

2013: Bing expanded Satori to include more people, places and things.

Firefox To Use Google Secure Search By Default; Expect More “Not Provided” Keywords To Follow

2012: It would further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google — except for Google advertisers.

New Ad Status Info Added To AdWords

2012: Google gave AdWords users a new way to figure out whether their ads are approved, or not, and why.

Microsoft’s adCenter Improvements Rolling Out Fast And Furiously

2012: Enhancements would include broad match modifier, AdCenter Express and more.

Report: Google Still Top Desired Place To Work

2011: An annual study ranked Google the top place for young working professionals to work at.

Report: Google Still Web’s Dominant Traffic Driver, But Some Niches See Facebook Gaining

2011: Google was the No. 1 source of traffic for 26 of the 35 properties analyzed (74%), and Google traffic had increased or stayed the same since last July for 24 of them (69%).

Google Plays More Involved Matchmaker Between Advertisers And Agencies

2011: Google implemented changes to Google Partner Search to make it easier for the two parties to get in contact.

Google Fined 100,000 Euros By French Privacy Regulator

2011: This was the first fine/penalty any country had levied against Google over the WiFi data collection.

German Court OKs Google Street View Imagery In “Landmark Decision”

2011: A Berlin court vindicated Google Street View operation in Germany.

Kadafi, Gaddafi, Qaddafi: In The Age Of Search, News Publications Still Struggle With Libya Leader’s Name

2011: Use the wrong spelling, and your story might go missing. Could search tell us the “right” one?

Chinese Hacking Google Again To Stop “Jasmine Revolution”

2011: Google blamed the Chinese government for “politically motivated attacks” that had disrupted Gmail service for some Chinese users.

AT&T-Mobile Makes Google-ITA Antitrust Issue Look Trivial

2011: If approved by US regulators, AT&T would have become the largest wireless carrier by a wide margin.

Twitter Celebrates 5th Birthday With Conan Show Appearance, New Video & More

2011: The company shared a new video, new website, blog posts, and had a national TV appearance on tap.

Google Analytics Benchmarking Data Now Live

2008: The reports within the benchmarking feature included visits, pageviews, pages/visits, bounce rates, average time on site and new visits.

Google Suggest Becoming A Default Feature?

2008: Google had implemented this feature as a default on other non-U.S. based search engine home pages but never as the default at Google.com. 

LinkedIn Adds New Company Directory

2008: LinkedIn, with help from BusinessWeek’s CapitalIQ, added a company directory and related factual information to its business network.

Search Biz: Probing Wikipedia’s Finances, Facebook Toast?, & Google Denies Evading Chinese Taxes

2008: A fascinating inside glimpse into Wikipedia’s finances, and the people responsible for both raising money and spending it. And more.

Search In Pictures: Snoop Dogg, St. Patrick’s Day, & Danny Exposed

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.

Google Wins KinderStart Case Over Site Penalty

2007: Google won the case brought against them by KinderStart over Google downgrading their rankings.

Google CSE Adds Show Popular Queries

2007: You could add a snippet of code on your site to show off the most popular queries performed by your readers.

No Google Phone But Instead Mobile Software, Says Google

2007: Google pushed back on earlier reports of building its own cell phone.

Yahoo’s Semel Says Panama Will Show “Exciting Numbers” In 1st Quarter

2007: “I’m totally all smiles,” Semel said about Panama.

Local Search News: BooRah, Oodle and Rao

2007: A quick roundup of some local search news.

Q&A With François Bourdoncle, CEO Of Exalead

2007: Bourdoncle co-founded Exalead with the goal of revolutionizing the search engine software market by providing users with a unified technology platform to access information in the enterprise.

PreFound Relaunches, Tries To Rise Above Social Search Din

2007: Rebranding itself somewhat as a “community” search engine, PreFound, like others, was trying to build a human-edited layer on top of general (in this case Google) search results.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

• SMX West 2017 keynote: Google talks about ranking, more in Google Assistant
• Workarounds To Make Enhanced Campaigns More Flexible (SMX West 2013)

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.

• 2022: How your ad position and CTR impact conversion rate by Jason Tabeling
• 2019: What do the symbols mean in Google’s Map Pack and Local Finder? by Brodie Clark
• 2019: Google’s March 2019 core quality update: Stories of recovery by Marie Haynes
• 2018: International SEO: How to build a global footprint by Jim Yu
• 2018: Dynamic Search Ads are for amateurs or superheroes by Daniel Gilbert
• 2017: Why and how entities are shaping location marketing by Adam Dorfman
• 2017: Seriously, Google, can you just make exact match exact? by Daniel Gilbert
• 2016: Google’s right-side Adpocalypse: What really happened (DATA) by Larry Kim
• 2016: 5 dos and don’ts of managing a new international PPC account by Pauline Jakober
• 2016: Why costs for local SEO campaigns vary by Jenny Foster
• 2014: Can Bounce Exchange Reduce Site Bounce Rate? A Tool Review by Larry Kim
• 2014: How To Use Entity Markup To Appear In The Knowledge Graph by Barbara Starr
• 2013: A Primer On How To Get The Most Out Of Sitemaps by Karen DeJarnette
• 2012: Why Search Marketers Are Losing Out With Search Retargeting by Dax Hamman
• 2012: 4 Examples Of B2B Content Marketing Executed With SEO Best Practices In Mind by Derek Edmond
• 2012: The Hidden Lever In Paid Search Optimization by Richard Carey
• 2011: 7 Local Web Marketing Infographics To Overload Your Brain by Andrew Shotland
• 2011: 3 Ways The iPad Pits Consumer Privacy Against Advertising Measurability by Matt Lawson
• 2011: The Mobile Content Dilemma: Brevity Vs. Optimization by Sherwood Stranieri
• 2011: 5 Paid Search Marketing Myths Explained In Simple Terms by Mona Elesseily
• 2008: Human Hardware: Men And Women by Gord Hotchkiss
• 2007: B2B Search Marketing: Branding’s Best Friend by Galen DeYoung

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