This day in search marketing history: February 22

Google page experience update for desktop rolls out

In 2022, Google began a nine-day rollout of the desktop version of its page experience update.

Page experience was made up of several Google search ranking factors, including the mobile-friendly update, Page Speed Update, the HTTPS ranking boost, the intrusive interstitials penalty, safe browsing penalty and Core Web Vitals.

The page experience update for desktop included all the signals from the mobile version (except for mobile-friendliness, for obvious reasons):

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
First Input Delay (FID)
HTTPS security
Absence of intrusive interstitials

What Google said:

“While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes.”

Read all about it in Google page experience update for desktop now rolling out.

Also on this day

Google’s Pirate Update can cause 89% drop in search traffic for offending sites

2022: A document Google sent to the U.S. Copyright Office showed just how much being hit by the Pirate Update could sting.

New Google Shopping experience scorecard

2022: Merchants that provided an excellent customer experience would see a boost in rankings and other visibility improvements in the Google Shopping tab.

Microsoft Advertising rolls out dynamic descriptions for DSAs, which will become the default starting in April

2022: Advertisers in sensitive verticals would remain opted out of this change for existing campaigns.

Microsoft Advertising auto-apply recommendations out of beta, advertisers opted in by default

2022: Advertisers were opted into all five of the platform’s recommendation types.

Google Search Console adds ‘associations’ so you can link with other Google accounts

2021: These could provide better and wider view of your data across various Google services.

Video: Eli Feldblum on the SEO industry maturing through the years

2021: Going way back into the early days of the SEO industry and walking you through how it matured over the years.

Google Search Console adds Products to enhancements reporting section

2019: This section helped you see how well your product markup was performing in Google’s search results.

Google Q&A: More than 90% of questions unanswered by business owners

2019: The answers that were there mostly came from Local Guides, who may or may not have provided accurate information.

Video comes to Google responsive display ads

2019: Google also introduced two new reporting options to help advertisers better evaluate their responsive display ads.

Not just for auto anymore: Google tests giant image search ads in new verticals.

2019: The ads featured a carousel of images.

AdWords Keyword Planner update appears to be rolling out in the new interface

2018: The latest version featured streamlined workflows and reflected the design updates in the new AdWords experience.

Maile Ohye has left Google

2017: She was best known for her talent for conveying complex technical topics in an understandable and actionable manner.

Updated Google My Business guidelines disallow virtual offices as service-area businesses

2017: Virtual offices were not considered service-area businesses and the virtual office had to be staffed during business hours.

Official: Google’s green outlined ‘Ad’ label replacing solid green version

2017: The new label for search text ads rolled out globally.

FAQ: All About The Changes To Google’s Ad Layout On Desktop Search Results

2016: A look at what was and was not changing.

Google To Shut Down Google Compare Products In US And UK On March 23

2016: The vertical lead generation programs for credit cards, auto insurance, mortgages and travel insurance would start winding down Feb. 23.

Everything’s Not Awesome: Google News Spammed With Pitch To Watch “The Lego Movie” For Free

2014: The “story” appearing at the top of the Google News entertainment section was all types of bad.

After Penalizing Interflora & UK Newspapers, Google Warns Against Advertorials

2013: More:

Google Quietly Rolls Out New Offer Extensions in AdWords

2013: Offer Extensions let AdWords advertisers post deal offers underneath a normal Google Search ad.

Wisconsin State Court OKs Bidding On Trademarks In Paid Search

2013: Court affirmed a circuit court’s ruling that it’s OK to use trademarks as keywords to trigger the display of paid search ads.

These Five Websites Captured 20% Of All Search Result Clicks

2013: Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon.

Search In Pics: Google Drive Latte, Google/Bing Traitor Cake & Google Cushions

2013: 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 Recommending New Video Schema.org Markup

2012: Google did this in combination with Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search as a “joint effort.”

Bing Launches Linked Pages, Promises Better People Search Results

2012: The purpose was to make the search results for you and your friends more personalized and richer.

Google On Designing Mobile Friendly Websites

2011: Pierre Far from Google shared how to design mobile-friendly websites while considering Google’s webmaster guidelines and best practices.

Facebook Organizes Its Search Results

2011: The new display was organized into different content types, replacing the old version which showed results in a straight list format with no organization.

Little-Known Isohunt Case Attracts Google’s Interest

2011: Google filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a civil case against Isohunt Web Technologies, a BitTorrent site, because it was concerned the court would set a precedent it didn’t like.

Google Queries Reveal Potential “Underground” Anti-Semitism In France

2011: Data from Google’s search suggest/auto-complete function indicated that French people were routinely searching on politicians’ names followed by the world “juif,” which means “Jewish” in French.

Russia: Egypt Uprising Fault Of Google

2011: Some in Russia wanted to lock down the Internet in similar ways to China, restricting some Google searches, access to social networks and more.

Oscars Golden Touch: Searches On Yahoo Spiking

2011: “Black Swan” was the top searched nominated film.

China Launches New Censored Search Engine To Compete With Baidu

2011: China Mobile and state-run news agency Xinhua launched Panguso, a search engine that let people search for news, web sites, images, videos and audio.

Google Adds MySpace To Real-Time Results & Images Site Command Updates

2010: Google would show the images on the webpages on that domain, and ignore the host of that image.

How Google Buzz Hijacks Your Google Profile

2010: Rather than “About me” showing, your Buzz activity appeared by default.

Waiting Game Begins On Google Book Search Settlement

2010: 21 of the 26 speakers during the hearing were against the settlement.

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, & Other Search Engines Must Comply With EU Privacy Rules

2008: European data privacy regulators said that collecting IP addresses or search history is gathering personal information.

Brin “Unnerved,” Yang “Girds,” And Microsoft Shops For A New Yahoo Board

2008: Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he found the prospect of Microsoft owning Yahoo “unnerving.”

Microsoft’s Johnson: “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction”

2008: An email from Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, had a tone of confidence that assumed a deal with Yahoo would ultimately take place.

Microsoft Launches Search Prizes With Virgin In UK: Big Snap Search

2008: Microsoft was running another search and win promotion.

Six Minutes With Former Ask CEO Jim Lanzone

2008: What was the most hyped thing Lanzone was seeing? “Beyond social networks, virtual worlds.”

Search In Pictures: Tennis at Google, The Mars Volta at Yahoo, & Schwag

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 To Launch YouTube Content Identification System Soon

2007: Google CEO Eric Schmidt said they would be releasing anti-piracy technologies for YouTube “very soon.”

Google Launches Fee Based Google Apps

2007: Google Apps Premier Edition gave you everything in standard Google Apps, plus several other features.

Yahoo To Redirect More Search Query Types Site Explorer

2007: Yahoo would be redirecting “domain:” and “hostname:” queries to Site Explorer.

Buyers & Information Seekers Search Differently

2007: Buyers viewed more search results (10 vs. 8) and took more time to view the results (11.4 seconds vs. 9.4 seconds) than information searchers.

Free Speech Vs. Trademarked URLs & Keywords

2007: A consumer watchdog filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of a Florida realtor sued by a homebuilder for using its corporate name in the URL of a website and buying sponsored search ads using the trademarked name to promote the site.

Search Rises Above Porn In U.K. Visits

2007: In January, search engines accounted for 13.3% of all UK internet visits, compared with 11.5% for adult websites.

Windows Live Shopping Goes Offline

2007: This beta test had ended.

The Numbers Behind Your Feeds

2007: FeedBurner was able to track clicks on virtually all web-based RSS readers.

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.

< February 21 | Search Marketing History | February 23 >

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