Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google said AI-generated content needs human oversight. Bing Search has select text to search in Bing Chat now. Google said HTML to text ratio makes no sense. Google is testing colored topic refinement search bubbles. Google is testing a list view for local service ads. And I posted the weekly search buzz video recap.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Human Oversight For AI Generated Content Is Important
Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, said it is important that there is human oversight when it comes to using AI-generated content. He said this on Twitter after speaking at the Google Search Central Live event in San Francisco last night. - New: Bing Search Select Text To Search Bing Chat
We previously reported how Bing Chat lets you select text on the Bing search results to conduct another search. Now Bing is expanding that to also let you search directly on Bing Chat, not just Bing Search. - Google: Text To HTML Ratio Makes No Sense For SEO & Ignore It
Google’s John Mueller is at it again, saying that text-to-HTML ratios are not a thing for SEO. He said on Reddit, “It makes absolutely no sense at all for SEO,” and you should “ignore any report that gives you a text:html ratio.” - Google Tests Colored +Topics Search Bar Refinements
Google is testing using colors for the +topic search bar refinements, those bubble buttons you sometimes get under this search bar in Google Search. I am seeing normal white buttons, then grey, blue and green, but I am sure there are more. - Google Tests Local Service Ads List View
Google is testing showing two local service ads in a list view, a change from it showing three local service ads in a carousel format. Google actually switched to three LSAs a year or so ago, up from two, and is now back to testing two. - Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google News Publisher Bug, FAQ & HowTo Rich Results Drop, SEO Old Content & GPTbot
For the original iTunes version, click here.
Google has a bug with the Google News Publisher Center where some publishers’ feeds were days behind… - iJustine With Google’s Peter The Greeter
I don’t subscribe to many YouTube channels but I did subscribe to iJustine’s channel because I am an Apple fan boy… It was cool to spot her in a photo with Peter the Greeter at Google. I also met iJ
Other Great Search Threads:
- Foot Locker was able to increase their image thumbnails on Google by 343% for category pages with this one simple change. They received a significant uptick in images being indexed, resulting in them surpassing key local com, Brodie Clark on Twitter
- Huh. New survey in Google Search Console to improve reporting for the news industry (about time!), including a link to a survey. Sample questions shown below., Kyle Sutton on Twitter
- I don’t think we’d remove features just because they’re not useful on your particular site., John Mueller on Twitter
- Totally up to you. IMO the world of mobile sites is in a significantly better place nowadays than it was back in the early days of AMP; maybe yours is fast & useful. There’s no special treatment for AMP anymore, so when your mobile site is ready, it’s a r, John Mueller on Twitter
- Yeah, “disconnected” usually means someone removed the verification tokens and then reverification in Search Console failed, so at some point it stops collecting data., John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
Local & Maps
Mobile & Voice
SEO
PPC
Search Features
Feedback:
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