UK CMA orders Google to explain how search results are ranked
Plus, Google is ordered to provide data portability to some third-party services.
Topic: Transparency
Google finally gives visibility into Search Partner Network placements
Google Ads is giving long-requested transparency. You can now see site-level impressions for Google Ads Search, Shopping, and App campaigns.
Google says AI is boosting Search. Yes, but…
A new Google blog post shares some broad traffic trends and tells us that AI drives more queries and higher quality clicks
How Google, Meta, and Microsoft Ads are earning – and losing – trust in 2025
Advertisers sound off on Google, Meta, and Microsoft Ads: what they love, what’s frustrating, and where PPC platforms must improve in 2025.
Google adds to its transparency rules for who is paying for ads
Google is expanding ad transparency by revealing who’s funding ads — making it crucial for advertisers to manage their public identity.
Dealing with Google Ads frustrations: Poor support, suspensions, rising costs
Google Ads is a powerful platform – but not without its headaches. Here’s why advertisers are frustrated and what needs to change.
Google adds Search Terms visibility to Performance Max campaigns
Google Performance Max now shows which search terms are triggering ads, allowing negative keywords to be added directly from the Search Terms report.
Google tightens disclosure rules for synthetic content in political ads
Advertisers will need to disclose synthetic or digitally altered content in election ads, as Google aims to combat misinformation.
Google expands definition of U.S. Election ads
Google now requires verification for a wider range of political content, which may impact more advertisers ahead of the 2024 elections.
Reddit adds third-party verification for advertisers
This partnership with ad measurement firm Integral Ad Science (IAS) will give advertisers third-party validation for campaign delivery.
Google says Performance Max ‘intentionally’ doesn’t show channel-specific KPIs
Advertisers are raising concerns about Google's lack of transparency around PMax performance data
Google pilots new PPC ad format
Advertisers are criticizing the lack of information about this new ad format, making it difficult to measure campaign performance.
Google advertisers are confused between support and sales – we asked for clarification
Search Engine Land spoke with Google to understand the difference between the two services and what to do if you're not happy with either.
Has Google Ads lost all credibility? Why one advertiser says it’s time to leave
"There should not be one ounce of trust left that any advertiser has in Google Ads," according to Greg Finn.
TikTok launches ads transparency library
The Commercial Content Library will give marketers access to key data that they can use to improve their campaign strategies.
Google 2022 Ads Safety Report reveals more than 6.7 million ad accounts suspended
The new Ad Transparency Center will allow users to access information about Google ads in Search, YouTube, and Display.
Google Ads creates unified advertiser verification program
Google will combine its advertiser identity and business operations verification programs under a unified Advertiser verification program.
‘About this advertiser’ initiative now includes Advertisers Pages for Google Ads
The advertiser page gives PPC experts the opportunity to show the integrity of their advertising to users but also leaves a trail of previous advertisements.
Google now shows why it ranked a specific search result
Google now list several of the factors it used to rank a result in the about this result section.
Google publishes Google News transparency policy for publishers
Google said it determines what constitutes meaningful transparency from news sources by what types of information an ordinary person might find helpful.
Proposed EU consumer rules to force ‘marketplaces’ to reveal ‘default ranking criteria’
Penalties will be stronger, and there will be an individual right of action.
German Official: Google Should Reveal Its Ranking Algorithm
One of the unanswered questions in the ongoing European-Google antitrust saga is what concrete changes or concessions critics want (or will accept) from Google. One of those things may have just come to light in a Financial Times interview with German justice minister Heiko Maas. Maas asserts in the interview that Google needs to become more “transparent” about its algorithm and […]
Politwoops: A Search Engine For Deleted Tweets From Policitians
At the beginning of the year I wrote about PolitickerUSA, a free tool that allows users to quickly and easily read tweets from members of congress and other political leaders. Today, I want to point out another free service named Politwoops that launched at the end of May. Here, users can access and read tweets […]
After A Month, Silence From The FTC On Search Engine Disclosure
A month ago, I sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission asking it to review how search engines are complying with its guidelines on disclosing listings where payment is involved. The silence since then, as the saying goes, has been deafening. That’s a pity given how important that review is to the on-going antitrust […]
A Letter To The FTC Regarding Search Engine Disclosure Compliance
In 2002, the US Federal Trade Commission created guidelines on how search engines should disclose paid placement and paid inclusion listings. It’s become clear to me over the past two weeks that the search engine industry has either largely forgotten these guidelines or is ignoring them. That’s why I’ve written a letter today to the […]
Given Nextag’s Lack Of Transparency, Its WSJ Opinion Piece Asking For Google Transparency Isn’t Wise
Nextag CEO Jeffrey Katz is out today in the Wall Street Journal with an opinion piece taking Google to task over a lack of transparency and fairness. Perhaps it’s not the smartest move, given that all his arguments can be neatly turned back against Nextag. Moreover, unlike Google, NexTag is probably in violation of US […]
Google Webmaster Tools Search Queries Report Now Less Accurate
The Google Webmaster Blog announced a “slight change” to how the search queries reports are displayed. Google will be rounding the impressions and clicks to one or two significant digits instead of with two or three significant digits. What does that mean? Basically the reports are less accurate because they are more rounded. For example, […]
Google Explains How Their Search, Ads & Apps Work
Google is trying to show the public how transparent they are, especially since the EU antitrust investigation. First, the Google European Public Policy blog had a post from Matt Cutts on Google’s transparency. And now I see Google has made a landing page at google.com/howgoogleworks. The new landing page has three videos on how Google’s […]
What Happened To Google’s ‘Commitment To Transparency’?
It’s no secret that Google — and other search engines — uses a variety of factors to customize search results: your search history, your location, and so forth. If you misspell a word, search engines often guess what you intended to type and show auto-corrected results. But on Google’s search results pages, it’s becoming a […]
Yahoo Adds Click Filter Report
Yahoo announced a new reporting feature in the search marketing portal that enables advertisers to see which clicks Yahoo has deemed to be invalid. The report is named the “Click Filter Report” and is available by clicking the “Reports” tab, then selecting “Click Filter” under the “Traffic Quality Reports” section in the Reports Navigator on […]
Search Wikia: Not Even A Remote Threat To Google
Search Wikia, the open source search engine from Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales’ Wikia, Inc. organization, launched today in an alpha version. Widely hyped, typically portrayed as a heroic David vs. Goliath struggle, it’s really just yet another crappy search service that may, potentially, if all goes well, eventually turn into something useful. For now, though, […]
Google Scores Poorly In International “Accountability” Report
The UK-based One World Trust issued a report ranking government organizations, civil groups, and private corporations in terms of their public “accountability” and “transparency.” The report’s findings are covered in The Register and Financial Times. The best performer in the report, the United Nations Development Programme, scored an 88 out of a potential 100 points, […]
Secrets Of Google Quality Score Revealed!!! (Not.)
The nice folks from Google were in for a visit a week or so ago. One of the topics on the day’s agenda was Ad Quality. If you read extremely closely, much of what they presented in their briefing is also described at the AdWords help center (see What is a ‘Quality Score’ and how […]
Google: Off-The-Record, Unless Eric Schmidt Is Saying It
I had to love the contrast in two items that hit my feed reader today: one where a talk by Google’s chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf was declared off-the-record by Google, upsetting some people, then another where Google CEO Eric Schmidt was at an off-the-record event but said he wanted the event video uploaded as […]
Google Puts Clickfraud Rate At Under 2 Percent
Andy Beal over at MarketingPilgrim has a nice article on how Google’s click fraud rate is less than two percent, at least according to Google’s own figures. This is based off the "invalid" click rate that Google gave him, which includes click fraud and clicks that aren’t actually billed. I could have sworn that Google […]