le confirms that the related search operator will be discontinued //

Google has removed support for related search operators, a search command that allows Google to tell you which other sites are related to a particular site. Danny Sullivan confirmed that it was going away. He said, “It’s not really worked well for a while, because in some cases the information is outdated.”

What is the Related Search Operator? The related search operator allowed you to type in the Google search box, for example, [related:https://www.google.com/] and Google would return related websites to that URL. Google’s older help documentation stated that “Google determines relatedness by comparing various factors, including the entities mentioned on the pages and the general category.”

It’s gone. Danny Sullivan confirmed the removal of Google’s Search Liaison on Twitter. He said, “It’s been a while since it worked well, and in some cases the information provided was outdated.”

This morning I noticed that Google had removed the operator from its help documentation . I then asked Google whether the search operator related to it was disappearing. Google confirmed that it will indeed be removed, but it does seem to return results at the moment.

Sullivan said it is also rarely used.

Alternatives could return. Danny Sullivan said, “We may revisit this type of information in the future”. What it might be and when is not known.

Google SGE provides a snapshot AI answer to this question. Is the related search command required?

This is how the related search engine looks for this website:

Why we care. You may have to look for an alternative if you are using the related search operators in SEO and search marketing. AI search engines such as Google SGE or Bing Chat could be of assistance.

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