SearchCap: Google News Mobile Algorithm, Mobile Queries Up, Product Ratings In AdWords

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Report: Mobile Search Queries 29 Percent Of Total But Growth Modest

  Search query percentages don’t line up with overall usage trends.

• Google Expands Product Rating Stars In Google Shopping Ads To UK, France, Germany

  Star ratings for specific products appear in product listing ads.

• WSJ Report Suggests Intervention In FTC’s Google Investigation By White House

  Article asserts Google lobbying affected agency’s decision in antitrust case.

• 5 PPC Testing Myths & Mistakes: How To Avoid Them!

  Columnist Mona Elesseily has run a lot of landing page tests over the course of her career — and seen a lot of these mistakes repeated over and over again.

• First-Party Data And Search

  What is first-party data, and how can you use this data to enhance your search campaigns? In part two of his multi-part series exploring the data landscape, columnist Alistair Dent tackles these questions.

• Google News Ranking Won’t Be Impacted By The New Mobile-Friendly Algorithm

  Google News ranking algorithm won’t factor in if a publisher is mobile-friendly or not, at least not yet.

• Google Testing Removing Line Separator Between Search Ads & Organic Search Results

  Google is testing removing the divider between the ads and free listings in the search results. Will it lead to more searcher confusion?

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• YouTube Shares Performance Stats On Google Preferred’s First Year
• Live Blog: Facebook Talks “Why Virtual Reality Will Matter” At F8
• Live Blog: Facebook Talks AI, Oculus VR & World Connectivity At F8
• The Marketing Tech Conference Expanding to Europe, Announces US 2016 Dates
• The Strategic Play: How Marketers Can Combine Elements To Avoid Missed Mobile Opportunities
• Amazing Ways Marketers Can Use First-Party Data
• Twitter’s Live-Streaming App ‘Periscope’ Surfaces To Compete With Meerkat
• Vodka Brand Creates Mobile App To Program Personalized LED Messages On Bottles

Search News From Around The Web:

Local & Maps

• Google Maps For Android Adds My Maps Feature, Search Engine Roundtable

Searching

• Google Testing In-Depth Articles Without Header, The SEM Post
• Google Tests Drop-Down Feature for Mobile Local Results, ignitevisibility.com

SEO

• Assessing Mobile Usability With Google Webmaster Tools, smashingmagazine.com
• Does Google Sniff Your Gmail to Discover URLs?, Stone Temple
• Google News Prefers HTTPS URLs For Indexing, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google Updates Canonical Documentation To Show HTTPS URLs, Search Engine Roundtable
• Introducing Your Website Moving Team, Renegade Search
• What is SEO and what it is not (a rant), State of Digital
• WordPress SEO 2.0: focus on what matters, Yoast

SEM / Paid Search

• Bing Ads Power Tools: Projecting performance with Bid Landscape, Bing Ads
• How Yahoo Stream Ads Opened Up Doors For One Client, PPC Hero