is the 21st anniversary of search marketing:

Google did not find rel=next/prev. This is an error.

We learned Google stopped supporting the rel=next/prev markup that was in 2011.

Worse, Google had stopped using it for indexing “numbers of years,” according Google’s John Mueller.

Google recommended it all the time, so developers, SEOs, and publishers invested resources in implementing and maintaining the markup, even though they were not gaining any benefit.

Google later apologized for the “oversight”,, a day later.

This day, too


Google Ads Editor version2.0 supports Performance Max campaigns

2022 This update included support for custom actions, action triggers and conversion goals.


Patent explains how CTR, page time could be used to rank search results (if Google did this).

2019 However, this doesn’t prove that Google uses engagement metrics in ranking.


Google’s neural match versus RankBrain – How Google uses each to search

2019: The use of neural matching to better match words with searches and RankBrain to better link pages to concepts.


Google launches News Initiative subscriptions laboratory for publishers

2019 The company also revealed new fact-checking tools, and other efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation.


Bing upgrades text-to-speech, expands intelligent answers, improves visual search

2019 Latest updates to Bing’s voice, image, and answer search.


Survey reveals that Google Home users are happier than Alexa owners

2019: Alexa was dominant, but higher Google Home NPS score scores indicated that it would have better word-of-mouth and could gain market share.


Amazon will introduce video ads to mobile-app search results — report

2019 A minimum of $35,000 is required for the purchase.


Google: It’s fine to use non-English URLs on non-English websites

2018 Google was capable of crawling, indexing and ranking them.


Google News Initiative launches with Subscribe With Google. Other efforts

2018: Subscribers will see articles from subscribed publications higher on search results, and they’ll be logged into those publications across all devices.


Google’s new shortcuts for mobile search eliminate the need to search from your smartphone.

2017 Quick answers to weather, entertainment and sports questions.


AdWords Adds Keyword Simulator Estimates to Reporting Columns

2014 Advertisers can add multiple columns to their reports from the Keyword tab. This section is located in the Customize Columns menu.


What do users think of the new Google Design?

2014: 33 participants in a usability survey preferred the “clean”, “fresh” or “uncluttered” version.


Google Alerts adds filters for regions & languages

2014 Google could be told that you only want alerts for certain keyword phrases in a particular region, country, or language.


Part Two: If Google Was A Guy (Video)

2014 It mocked searchers Google Doodles and Google Glass, as well as Bing.


Search in Pics: Sergey Brin with Ed Snowden, Google Water Balloon Launcher & More

2014 These are the most recent images that show what people eat at search engine companies, their play habits, where they go, what they eat, and what toys they own.


Topless Nude Photos Make Their Way to The Google Knowledge Graph

2013 The image displayed for Angel Tompkins was taken from a site which appeared to be a spam website with nude photos of people.


Google Alerts: Still Broken

2013 A second open letter on how badly the service worked.


Bing Snapshot: Understanding People, Places and Things with “Satori” Expansion

2013: Bing enlarged Satori to include more people and places.


Firefox To Use Google SecureSearch By Default; Expect More Keywords “Not Provided”.

2012: This would make it harder for publishers to find out how users found their sites on Google, excluding Google advertisers.


AdWords Added New Ad Status Information

2012: Google has given AdWords users an entirely new way to determine if their ads have been approved or rejected and why.


Microsoft’s AdCenter Improvements Are Coming Out Fast and Furious

2012: Enhancements will include AdCenter Express, broad match modifiers and many other features.


Report: Google Still Tops Desired Place to Work

2011 An annual survey ranked Google as the best place to work for young professionals.


Report: Google Still Web’s Nominant Traffic Driver. But, Some Niches See Facebook Gaining

2011, Google was No. Google was the No. 1 source of traffic for 26 out of 35 properties (74%) and Google traffic had increased/stayed the same for 24 (69%).


Google is a more involved matchmaker between advertisers and agencies

2011, Google made changes to Google Partner Search in order to make it easier to contact each other.


Google Fined 100,000 euros by French Privacy Regulator

2011 This was a first penalty or fine that any country had ever imposed against Google for its WiFi data collection.


German Court OKs Google Street View Imagery In “Landmark Decision”

2011 A Berlin court ruled in favor of Google Street View operations in Germany.


Kadafi and Gaddafi are still struggling with news publications in the age of search.

2011 If you spell it wrong, your story could be lost. Search could tell us which one is correct.


Chinese Hacking Again Google To Stop “Jasmine Revolution.”

2011 Google slammed the Chinese government for “politically motivated attack” that disrupted Gmail service to some Chinese users.


AT&T Mobile Makes Google-ITA Antitrust Issue Look Trivial

2011 AT&T would be the largest wireless carrier in America if it was approved by US regulators.


Twitter celebrates its 5th birthday with Conan Show appearance, new video and more

2011 The company released a new video, a new website, blog posts and made a national television appearance.


Google Analytics Benchmarking Data Now Live

2008 Reports within the benchmarking feature included pageviews, pages/visits and bounce rates.


Google Suggest Becoming A Default Feature?

2008: Google had made this feature a default on non-U.S. search engine home pages, but not at Google.com.


LinkedIn Creates a New Company Directory

2008: LinkedIn added a company directory to its business network with the help of BusinessWeek’s CapitalIQ.


Search Biz – Probing Wikipedia’s Finances and Facebook Toast?, & Google Denies Evasion of Chinese Taxes

2008 An amazing inside look into Wikipedia’s finances and the people who raise and spend it. Plus, many more.


Search In Pictures – Snoop Dogg & St. Patrick’s Day & Danny Exposed

2008 These images show what people eat at search engine companies, their play habits, where they go, their toys, and much more.


Google Wins KinderStart Case Over Site Penalty

2007: Google won against KinderStart in a case over Google’s downgrading of their rankings.


Google CSE Adds Show Popular Queries

2007 To show your visitors the most frequently asked questions, you could include a small code snippet to your website.


Google Mobile Software instead of a Google Phone

2007 Google has reacted to earlier reports that it was building its own mobile phone.


Yahoo’s Semel Declares Panama Will Display “Exciting Numbers” in the First Quarter

2007 Semel said about Panama, “I’m totally all smilings.”


Local Search News: BooRah Oodle, and Rao

2007 Quick roundup of local search news.


Q&A with Francois Bourdoncle (CEO Of Exalead)

2007: Bourdoncle founded Exalead to revolutionize the market for search engine software. The goal was to provide users with a single technology platform that allows them to find information within the company.


PreFound Relaunches, Tries To Rise Above Social Search Din

2007 PreFound was trying to create a human-edited layer over general (in this instance Google) search results.

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.

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The post This Day in Search Marketing History: March 21 was first published on Search Engine Land.

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