is the 26th anniversary of search marketing history

Google increases mobile-friendliness to be a ranking signal

Google declared in 2015 that it would increase its use of mobile friendliness as a ranking signal. This was effective from April 21st 2015.

Google stated that this algorithmic change would have “significant impacts” on mobile search results and will impact all languages around the world.

However, April was here and the consensus was that Mobilegeddon was not as significant as all the panic they created with their February 26 announcement.

Google also announced that App Indexing apps will begin to rank higher in mobile searches. Google stated that this will only work for registered users who have the app installed on their device.

Mobilegeddon Cometh – New Google “Mobile Friendly Update”, To Reward Sites Starting April 21

This day, too


How to identify products for Google

2021 – Google has published a list containing best practices that will help ensure its search engine understands the products being referenced.


Google mobile first indexing to be applied on all sites within a period of one year

2020: Google sent notices to websites that were experiencing issues with mobile-first indexing.


Use this (free) tool to create exclusion lists for network networks

2020: This tool is for people who are tired of manually going through placement reports and trying to exclude inappropriate websites or apps from display campaigns.


Google Search Console now allows you to export more data

2020: search console users could access all reports and download the complete information (rather than just table views).


Google search view now available in 3D for e-commerce websites

2020: A Burberry bag showed up in Google Search Results with a “view In 3D” option.


Google will kill property sets in Search Console

2019: Google stated that you could download data from the API or interface before it was turned off completely.


Google Ads to Sunset Average Position Reporting Metric Later This Year

2019: The average position was one the few constants that remained constant for over 15 years. However, the utility of this position has declined sharply with the elimination of right rail ads.


Google call only ads get ‘expanded” with more characters

2019 Another change was that the name of the company would be moved to the description line.


Google has released Mobile Scorecard & Impact Calculator tools that illustrate the importance of mobile page speed

2018: The One tool compared a site to mobile competition. Another tool was created to highlight the positive impact that mobile speed can have for your bottom line.


Google confirms bug in crawl stats for ‘time spent downloading pages’ Search Console report

2018: Google’s John Mueller confirmed that there was a problem with the crawl stats report “time spent downloading pages” in the Google Search Console on February 20-21.


Google Shopping now displays ads from other shopping engines in response to an EU antitrust ruling

2018 The Google Shopping business unit competed against other Comparison Shopping Engines during the ad auction in order to provide the engines with “equal treatment”, as required by the ruling.


Google Word Coach – A fun word game for the search results

2018: Google has added a new feature that allows non-English speakers to expand their English-language vocabulary.


Google: AMP Not Yet A Search Ranking Signal

2016: John Mueller, Google, stated that you can use AMP to make your website mobile-friendly but that AMP was not a ranking signal.


Google Confirms Review Stars’ Mysterious Absence in Search Results Was A Bug

2016: Google review Snippets were returned after a bug caused them not to appear in many search results for around a week.


Late-Week Reporting Problems Bing Ads and AdWords

2016: Google AdWords Reports weren’t available for downloading or printing. Bing Ads reported delays that affected the WebUI, mobile, and API.


Google App Updates will include new animations and the ability to change Google logo colors

2016: Users will be able to alter the color of Google’s logo by using a “finger-painting-like” feature.


Search in Pics: Coca Cola Google Cardboard and Googley Volvo & Animated Google Signature

2016: These are the most recent images that show what people eat at search engine companies, their play habits, where they go, and what toys they own.


Google’s Matt Cutts says that while scientific content is great, clarity and focusing on the searcher are important

2014: Cutts responds to the question “Should my content be clear or jargon-rich?”


Movie Websites Ranking Higher in Google, Now That “Transient Problem” Has been Fixed

2014: Rankings have been restored, and most traffic is returning to the affected sites.


You are hiding from the Google Penalty It may be at your new home

2014: Google may still find your penalized website and send it down the bad signals even if you haven’t redirected the penalized site.


Official Launch of AdWords Flexible conversion Counting, “Converted Clicks” and the “Conversions”

2014: This company announced the launch Flexible Conversion Counting. AdWords would now include new columns for advertisers.


Google shares performance stats on Search Network with Display Select Campaigns

2014 Google rel made some case studies performance results for the new campaign type.


FOX and Google Partner to Allow Voting for American Idol on Google’s Search Results

2014: To vote, simply go to Google and search for [american idol]/[idol] in the voting window. Then, choose your favourite finalists.


Google Brings Back Right-Click-For-Directions To Google Maps

2014: You can also use the “What’s Here” option to quickly find lat-long coordinates of any location on the map.


Baidu Posts 50 Pct. However, Revenue Growth is Slowing and Investor Hopes Are Low

2014 The company reported $1.573 billion in Q4 revenues, an increase of 50.3% over 2013.


Martin Beck is a Third Door Media member from The Los Angeles Times

2014: Beck served as Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter between March 2014 and December 2015.


Google Panda Two years Later: 5 Questions with HubPages CEO Paul Edmondson

2013: Edmonson confirmed Panda’s “massive loss of traffic, revenue” but HubPages didn’t intend to change its course. The plan was to improve quality.


The Hidden Google Search Box

2013 It appeared that Google was trying to hide the search box from the Google search results pages.


Number crunchers: Who lost in Google’s Panda Algorithm Modification?

2011 Associated Content was the largest “content farm” brand to seem to have suffered.


Yes, More Are Seeing A New Google Look-And-Feel

2010: The testing would continue up to May, when will launch the new user interface.


Google Adds “Nearby” Local Search to the Options Panel

2010, Google has expanded its Search Options panel to include a tool that allows you to refine your searches by location.


Google Street View Finds More Problem In Europe

2010 Members from the European Union’s Data Protection Group urged Google to make improvements to its Street View mapping/photo services and warned that Google may be violating EU laws.


Google News Adds Officially Advertisements

2009: After a few months of testing ads, Google News officially launched ads on Google News search results for all US-based searchers.


Google Takes on Twitter

2009 The first tweet was in binary, and translated into “Feeling Lucky”.


Google Maps Adds User Photos To Street View

2009: Google has added geo-tagged Panoramio images to StreetView images.


Report: Depressing Search Ad Market Due to Lack of Buying Searchers

2009: Rimmman shared early quarter PPC data that showed weak trends for search advertisers.


Yahoo Search Update: Weather Reports Go Away

2009: Yahoo finally issued a weather report, confirming that there were ongoing updates and that they would be “completed very shortly.”


Yahoo Adds Facebook As A SearchMonkey Friend

2009: Yahoo announced today that Facebook enhanced search results are now enabled by default in all search results.


Yahoo CEO Bartz: New Management To Make Yahoo “A Lot Faster On Its Feet”

2009 It means that everything at Yahoo! is simpler. We will be able make faster decisions, we can eliminate the notorious silos, and we will have a renewed focus for the customer.


Google AdWords Launches Limited Beta Testing – “Automatic Matching”

2008: Automatic Matching was a tool that Google provided to assist advertisers in utilizing their budgets towards keywords they might not have been targeting.


Google Updates AdSense Terms & Conditions

2008: Google has updated their AdSense terms to include more verbiage about new products and features as well as an update of their privacy requirements.


Yahoo Is Not Overtaking Yahoo & Playing Dead

2008: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang stated that the Microsoft takeover bid was a “galvanizing event” for Yahoo.


Minimum Bids In Yahoo About To Change

2008: Minimum Bids Could Be Lower or Higher Than $0.10.


Yahoo Announces “Search Monkey” Enhanced and Annotated Results At SMX West

2008: Yahoo was planning to announce a project code-named Search Monkey, an open-source tool that allows users and publishers to enhance and annotate search results for specific websites.


Yahoo Buzz Launches Votes, Searches & Emails To Rank News

2008: Yahoo Buzz is a website where “buzzworthy” news articles are highlighted based upon user votes.

Search activity and email sharing


Gmail Adds Invisible Mode Features and Google Talk

2008 The initial feature was similar to a chat box you could add on any page and talk to anyone using your Google Talk account or Gmail.


Google Joins the “Unity” Undersea Cable Consortium To Increase Transpacific Bandwidth

2008: Google teamed up with a group of Asian companies to create an undersea fiber optic cable which would offer a much higher bandwidth between the United States (USA) and Japan (Japan).


Google AdWords To Display Advertisers’ Contextual Ads

2007: Google would start listing the websites where each ad is running.


Google Takes Action on Web Page Malware Notifications

2007: Google provided more detailed reports about malware issues on a site, and also sent email notifications to webmasters regarding these malware warnings.


Google Video Plus Box Results

2007: Spotted out in the wild.


Google Checkout Australia Coming Soon?

2007 Google Payment Australia PTY. LTD.


Google ordered to change AdSense contract by South Korea’s Watchdog

2007 According to the Fair Trade Commission, the contract allowed Google to “one-sidedly cancel” advertising deals with publishers.


Microsoft To Buy Health Search Engine Medstory Inc.

2007: Microsoft intends to build a specialized search engine that delivers medical information to consumers.


Video Search Challenge isn’t speech recognition, it’s content owner management

2007 The real problem was not speech recognition but working with content owners.


Pew Research: Wireless Internet Grows

2007: Pew stated that approximately 13.5% of U.S. Internet users accessed the Internet via mobile phones (or equivalents).

Search Marketing Expo ( , SMX).

Past contributions by Search Engine Land’s Subject matter Experts (SMEs).

These columns represent a snapshot of time. They have not been updated since publication, except where noted. These articles do not reflect Search Engine Land’s views.

Search Marketing History

The post This Day in Search Marketing History: February 26 was first published on Search Engine Land.

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