This day in search marketing history: January 31

Google releases URL Inspection Tool API

In 2022, Google released a new API under the Search Console APIs for the URL Inspection Tool. The new URL Inspection API let you programmatically access the data and reporting you’d get from the URL Inspection Tool but through software.

Google’s URL Inspection Tool API had a limit of 2,000 queries per day and 600 queries per minute.

Google provided some use cases for the API:

SEO tools and agencies can provide ongoing monitoring for important pages and single page debugging options. For example, checking if there are differences between user-declared and Google-selected canonicals, or debugging structured data issues from a group of pages.
CMS and plugin developers can add page or template-level insights and ongoing checks for existing pages. For example, monitoring changes over time for key pages to diagnose issues and help prioritize fixes.

Within a week, several SEO professionals developed free new tools and shared scripts, and established SEO crawlers integrated this data with their own insights, as Aleyda Solis rounded up in 8 SEO tools to get Google Search Console URL Inspection API insights.

Also on this day

Google Search Console error reporting for Breadcrumbs and HowTo structured data changed

2022: This change may have resulted in seeing more or less errors in your Breadcrumbs and HowTo structured data Search Console enhancement and error reports.

Recommendations roll out to Discovery campaigns

2022: Google Ads also launched auto-applied recommendations for manager accounts and more recommendations for Video campaigns.

Google Ads creates unified advertiser verification program

2022: Google would combine its advertiser identity and business operations verification programs under a unified Advertiser verification program.

Deepcrawl launches technical SEO app for Wix

2022: Designed for small and mid-sized enterprises, the app automated weekly site crawls and detects issues ranging from broken pages to content that doesn’t meet best-practice guidelines for SEO.

Pinterest rolls out AR ‘Try on’ feature for furniture items

2022: The augmented reality feature, called “Try On for Home Decor,” let users see what furniture looked like in their home before buying.

Meta descriptions and branding have the most influence on search clickthrough, survey finds

2020: The majority of participants also agreed that rich results improved Google search.

Microsoft: Search advertising revenue grew slower than expected last quarter

2020: LinkedIn sessions grew faster than the previous three quarters, though revenue growth slowed slightly in the second quarter of its fiscal 2020.

Bing lets webmasters submit 10,000 URLs per day through Webmaster Tools

2019: Previously you were able to submit up to 10 URLs per day and maximum of 50 URLs per month. Bing increased these limits by 1000x and removed the monthly quota.

Client in-housing, competition for talent top digital agency concerns

2019: Marketing Land’s Digital Agency Survey found the sector was weathering digital transformation well, but the growth of data-driven marketing made it clear where they needed to hire.

Quora adds search-like keyword targeting, Auction Insights for advertisers

2019: Quora introduced three new metrics (Auctions Lost to Competition, Impression Share, Absolute Impression Share) to help advertisers understand how they performed in the ad auctions.

Google’s Page Speed Update does not impact indexing

2018: Indexing and ranking are two separate processes – and this specific algorithm had no impact on indexing.

Bing Ads has a conversion tracking fix for Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention

2018: Advertisers had to enable auto-tagging of the Microsoft Click ID in their accounts to get consistent ad conversion tracking from Safari.

Google EU shopping rivals complain antitrust remedies aren’t working

2018: They demanded more changes, saying their problems have intensified rather than improved since the EC ruling in June 2017.

Google mobile-friendly testing tool now has API access

2017: Developers could now build their own tools around the mobile-friendly testing tool to see if pages are mobile-friendly.

AdWords IF functions roll out for ad customization as Standard Text Ads sunset

2017: IF functions arrived to let advertisers customize ads based on device and retargeting list membership.

Google launches Ads Added by AdWords pilot: What we know so far

2017: Ads based on existing ad and landing page content were added to ad groups by Google.

New AdWords interface alpha is rolling out to more advertisers

2017: It would roll out to even more AdWords accounts in the next few months.

Majestic successfully prints the internet in 3D in outer space

2017: The 3D printer worked in outer space, and the Majestic Landscape was printed at the International Space Station.

Nadella Would Bring Search Cred To Microsoft CEO Role

2014: For the prior three years Nadella had run Microsoft’s Server & Tools business. Before that he was in charge of Bing and online advertising.

Bing Ads Editor Update Gives The Lowly “Sync Update” Window Real Functionality

2014: The sync window showed the total number of changes and the number of those that had been successfully downloaded from or posted to the account.

What Time Does Super Bowl 2014 Start? Look Up!

2014: Google showed the start time at the top of its results.

Who’s Tops? Bud Light Is Unseated As Number One Super Bowl Advertiser On Google And Bing

2014: Volkswagen garnered the top spot with the most ad impressions on Google.

Search In Pics: The Simpsons With Google Glass, Oscar Mayer Car At Google & Google Military Truck

2014: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Adwords For Video Gets Reporting Enhancements

2013: Google added three new measurement features to the AdWords for video reporting interface (Reach & Frequency, Column Sets Tailored to Marketing Goals, Geographic Visualization).

Jackie Robinson Google Baseball Player Logo

2013: The Doodle honored Robinson for his 94th birthday.

Google & Bing: We’re Not Involved In “Local Paid Inclusion”

2012: A program that guaranteed top listings for local searches on Google, Yahoo and Bing? An “officially approved” one in “cooperation” with those search engines? Not true, said Google and Bing.

Report: Search Ad Spend To Rise 27% In 2012

2012: Search ad spend was expected to grow 27% from 2011 to 2012, up from $15.36 billion to $19.51 billion. And by 2016, it was expected to reach almost $30 billion annually.

Matt Cutts Convinces Some South Korean Govt. Websites To Stop Blocking Googlebot

2012: Cutts managed to singlehandedly convince some government reps to let Googlebot crawl and index their websites.

DOJ Exploring “Search Fairness” With Google As Rivals Protest Potential ITA Licensing Deal

2011: FairSearch.org opposed any such potential licensing deal.

Review Sites’ Rancor Rises With Prominence of Google Place Pages

2011: Google’s relationship with review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp was as complicated as ever.

Google’s Android Now “The World’s Leading Smartphone Platform”: Report

2011: More Android handsets were shipped in Q4 2010 than other platforms.

Blekko Launches Mobile Apps For iPhone, Android

2011: Slashtags and the personalization that Blekko offered were even better suited to the mobile search use case in some respects.

Topsy Social Analytics: Twitter Analytics For The Masses (& Free, Too)

2011: You could analyze domains, Twitter usernames, or keywords — and they can be compared over four timeframes: one day, a week, two weeks or a month.

Google Executive Believed Missing After Egypt Protests

2011: Wael Ghonim went missing not long after tweeting about being “very worried” and “ready to die.”

Apple CEO: Google Wants To “Kill The iPhone”

2010: “We did not enter the search business,” Jobs said. “They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.”

Google Gets Fearful, Flags Entire Internet As Malware Briefly

2009: Due to a human error, Google told users “This site may harm your computer” for every website listed in search results.

Google Revenues Up 51 Percent, Social Networking Monetization “Disappointing”

2008: Google’s Q4, 2007 revenues were $4.83 billion, compared with $3.21 billion the year before.

Google’s Marissa Mayer On Social Search / Search 4.0

2008: How the search engine was considering using social data to improve its search results.

Report: Click Fraud Up 15% In 2007

2008: The overall industry average click fraud rate rose to 16.6% for Q4 2007. That was up from 14.2% for the same quarter in 2006, and 16.2% in Q3 2007.

New “Show Search Options” Broadens Google Maps

2008: A pull-down menu allowed users to narrow or expand results for the same query and more easily discover non-traditional content in Google Maps.

Google’s Founders & CEO Promised To Work Together Until 2024

2008: Spoiler alert: Schmidt left Google’s parent company Alphabet for good in February 2020.

Google Reports Revenues Up 19 Percent From Previous Quarter

2007: Google reported revenues of $3.21 billion for Q4 2006, representing a 67% increase over Q4 2005 revenues of $1.92 billion

Google Pushes Back On Click Fraud Estimates, Says Don’t Forget The Back Button

2007: Google’s Shuman Ghosemajumdersome said third-party auditing firms don’t appear to be
matching up estimated fraud figures with refunds or even actual clicks registered by advertisers.

Google, Microsoft, & Yahoo Ask For Help With International Censorship

2007: The search engines had to make “moral judgments” about international authorities’ requests for information when they do not have to do the same for US requests.

Yahoo To Build New Keyword Research Tool & Wordtracker Launches Free Tool

2007: YSM’s public keyword research tool was sporadically offline, but Yahoo had plans to offer a new public keyword research tool.

Gmail Locks Out User For Using Greasemonkey & Reports Of Gmail Contacts Disappearing

2007: The account was disabled for 24 hours due to “unusual usage.”

Yahoo To Build “Brand Universe” To Connect Entertainment Brands

2007: Brand Universe would create about 100 websites built around entertainment brands and pull together content from various Yahoo properties.

Google Can’t Use “Gmail” Name In Europe

2007: Due to a trademark of the term.

Boorah Restaurant Reviews: Zagat On Steroids

2007: Boorah collected reviews from existing local search and content sites, summarized and enhanced the data and built additional features on top.

Q&A With Stephen Baker, CEO Of Reed Business Search

2007: What was new with Zibb, a B2B search engines, and the opportunities he saw going forward in B2B search.

January 2007: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

SMX Overtime: Here’s how multi-location brands can manage their local listings

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.

< January 30 | Search Marketing History | February 1 >

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