{"id":29851,"date":"2023-01-13T05:50:58","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T05:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/13\/this-day-in-search-marketing-history-january-13\/"},"modified":"2023-01-13T05:50:58","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T05:50:58","slug":"this-day-in-search-marketing-history-january-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2023\/01\/13\/this-day-in-search-marketing-history-january-13\/","title":{"rendered":"This day in search marketing history: January 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

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Matt Cutts educates Washington, DC about Google<\/h2>\n

In 2011, Matt Cutts, the head of Google\u2019s search spam team, was in Washington DC, doing an \u201ceducational tour\u201d to explain to US Federal Trade Commission members and congressional staffers that Google\u2019s search results didn\u2019t require government regulation.<\/p>\n

Part of his visit included a 89-page slide presentation, called \u201cSearch Integrity,\u201d at Google\u2019s Washington, D.C. offices.<\/p>\n

Cutts said the same thing that Google had been telling the search marketing community for years \u2013 that Google\u2019s results are determined by an algorithm and not tweaked to get particular sites ranking well. <\/p>\n

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\u201cThe only reasons I know of to go in and change [search rankings] manually is for security, a court order or spam. It is impossible to pay for a better ranking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Cutts, as quoted in The Washington Post<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read all about it in Mr. Cutts Goes To Washington, Testifies Google Has Integrity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Also on this day\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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IndexNow now officially co-sharing URLs between Microsoft Bing and Yandex<\/a><\/h3>\n

2022:<\/strong> If you used IndexNow to submit URLs to Microsoft Bing, Microsoft would immediately share those URLs with Yandex.<\/p>\n

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DuckDuckGo passes 100 billion searches<\/a><\/h3>\n

2022:<\/strong> The privacy focused search engine announced it had surpassed 100 billion all time searches.<\/p>\n

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Google pauses all political ads through inauguration<\/a><\/h3>\n

2021:<\/strong> Ads mentioning politics, impeachment, the inauguration, and the insurrection at the US Capitol were all being halted.<\/p>\n

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Google January 2020 Core Update rolling out later today<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> Google announced it was releasing a broad core algorithm update called the January 2020 Core Update.<\/p>\n

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Google Rich Results testing tool now reports on unloadable embedded resources<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> The tool could now report unloadable embedded resources, such as external elements included by a page.<\/p>\n

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Google\u2019s \u2018My Business Provider\u2019 program replaces \u2018Trusted Verifier\u2019 for GMB outreach<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> Agencies, SEOs, and resellers were not eligible for this program. And the proposed MBP \u201cmust not have access to the business listings they are verifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Google rolling out desktop search redesign with black \u201cAd\u201d label, favicons for organic results<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> After several months of being live in the Google mobile results, Google launched the new design on desktop.<\/p>\n

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Responsive search ads available globally in all Microsoft Advertising interfaces<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> Microsoft recommended running up to five ads per ad group, including at least one RSA.<\/p>\n

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Video: William \u00c1lvarez on the importance of structured data and Google search<\/a><\/h3>\n

2020:<\/strong> In this installment of Barry Schwartz\u2019s vlog series, he chats with \u00c1lvarez about why structured data will be important in the future and his passion for mentoring SEOs.<\/p>\n

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Zhou Youguang Google doodle honors Chinese linguist known as the \u2018Father of Pinyin\u2019<\/a><\/h3>\n

2018:<\/strong> The animated doodle highlighted Youguang\u2019s work by flipping the Os within Google\u2019s name from Pinyin (G\u01d4g\u0113) to Chinese characters (\u8c37\u6b4c) and led to a search for \u201cZhou Youguang.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Search in Pics: Google Bollywood car, orange tree & indoor bike parking<\/a><\/h3>\n

2017:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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SEOs Confused, Puzzled After Google\u2019s Mystery Update<\/a><\/h3>\n

2016:<\/strong> A summary of some of the questions, answers and additional confusion around the most recent Google core algorithm update<\/a> and Panda becoming part of Google\u2019s core ranking signals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Bing Adds An Internet Speed Test Tool To The Search Results<\/a><\/h3>\n

2016:<\/strong> Some users were seeing the new feature on Bing when searching for [speed test] or [internet speed test].\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Google Maps For Android Gets \u201cDriver Mode\u201d Feature To Anticipate Your Next Stop<\/a><\/h3>\n

2016:<\/strong> The new feature would anticipate where a user wanted to go and advise how best to get there.<\/p>\n

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Bing Predicts Launches AreWeIn.net For NCAA March Madness Basketball Fans<\/a><\/h3>\n

2018:<\/strong> The site offered daily analysis of NCAA basketball teams, predicting whether they would make the tournament and how they would finish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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LinkedIn Gives Search A Promotion By Adding Better Post Results & Richer, Personalized Listings<\/a><\/h3>\n

2015:<\/strong> LinkedIn\u2019s new customized search functionality was designed to help you find people, jobs or posts faster.<\/p>\n

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Ryanair CEO Claims Airline Is Working With Google On A Flight Search & Comparison Tool<\/a><\/h3>\n

2014:<\/strong> Ryanair CEO Michael O\u2019Leary said his airline has entered a partnership with Google, and was providing the search engine with flight pricing to help build a travel search and comparison tool.<\/p>\n

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Bing Begins Supporting Separately SSL Search Site; No Referrers Pass<\/a><\/h3>\n

2014:<\/strong> If you conducted a search on Bing, while on the HTTPS URL, it would remain HTTPS and keep your searches secure.<\/p>\n

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Google: Ability To Block Sites From Search Results Will Return, But When?<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> The ability to\u00a0block web sites\u00a0from search results\u00a0disappeared when Google\u2019s\u00a0Search Plus personalized results format<\/a>\u00a0launched.<\/p>\n

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Q4 Reports: Search Advertising Growing In Efficiency<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> Four reports all pointed to an overwhelmingly successful fourth quarter in 2011 for major search advertisers in a number of verticals.<\/p>\n

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Search Alliance Begins First AdCenter Testing In Europe<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> The first testing for the roll-out was to commence mid-January and involve up to 10% of Yahoo\u2019s traffic in France, Ireland and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

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Report: FTC Expanding Anti-Trust Investigation Of Google To Include Google+<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> So said \u201cpeople familiar with the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bing Tests New Bottom Home Page Bar<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> The new bar added a Popular Now, Weather, Image and Video boxes.<\/p>\n

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Google\u2019s SPYW, Kenya Imbroglios An \u201cInk Blot\u201d Test For Google As Good Or Evil<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> A local search\/directory startup\u00a0said Google crawled its site for local business sales leads and then falsely claimed in cold calls to those businesses it had a partnership with the publisher to sign them up.<\/p>\n

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Search In Pics: Google Cockroach, Cutts With Horse Mask & Google Beer Pong<\/a><\/h3>\n

2012:<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

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Google Now #1 Search Engine In Czech Republic; 5 Countries To Go For Global Domination<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> The Czech Republic was one of six countries (along with Russia, Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea) where Google wasn\u2019t the dominant search engine.<\/p>\n

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Bing Now Powering Yahoo Search In 3 More Countries<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> Bing was now powering the Yahoo back-end for organic search in Australia, Brazil and Mexico.<\/p>\n

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Bing Enhances Auto Instant Answers with Car Listings<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> Bing\u00a0added new and used car listings in a self-contained autos-shopping page that kept users within the Bing experience.<\/p>\n

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Experian Hitwise: Bing Searches Up 5% In December 2010<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> From November to December 2010,\u00a0Bing.com\u00a0saw a\u00a05%\u00a0<\/strong>increase in search activity, while Bing-powered searches also rose 2%<\/p>\n

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Google\u2019s New China Plan: Target Display Advertisers, Report Says<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> Under the new game plan, Google was targeting Chinese firms to advertise on its dominant overseas search market, a business which already constitutes about half of its China revenues.<\/p>\n

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Europeans Go \u201cFishing\u201d For Bad Google Behavior In Anti-Trust Inquiry<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> A 120 question document sought \u201cto ascertain whether Google manipulated search results and used its popular platform to keep business and disadvantage rivals in online advertising and Internet search.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Topsy Launches Brand-Friendly Twitter Widgets<\/a><\/h3>\n

2011:<\/strong> Topsy\u2019s\u00a0Social Modules were embeddable widgets that brought Twitter content to any website.<\/p>\n

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AdWords Display URL Policy Change For Hosted Domains<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> For sites hosted on a blogspot.com, wordpress.com or similar type of domain, Google wanted advertisers to show the subdomain portion of the domain, in addition to the main domain.<\/p>\n

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Google Ranks Real-Time Tweets Based On Followers?<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> It wasn\u2019t just about the number of Twitter followers, but also who the \u201creputed followers\u201d were, according to Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow.<\/p>\n

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Google\u2019s China Gambit: Day Two Reaction<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> A sampling of a wide variety of reactions and responses to the news that Google\u00a0could potentially pull out of China\u00a0if it cannot operate without censorship.<\/p>\n

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Nielsen: Yahoo, Bing Down, Google Up in December<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> Gains by Google, a minor gain by AOL, and declines for Yahoo and Bing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Harvard Professor Details New, \u2018Insidious\u2019 Form Of Google Click Fraud<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> One of Google\u2019s more vocal critics says the company should cut its ties with InfoSpace over what he called \u201ca particularly insidious kind of click fraud\u201d that involves a fairly complex combination of paid ads, affiliate traffic brokering, and spyware.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Baidu: The Official Google Blog You Seek Does Not Exist (& Don\u2019t Even Try Looking For It)<\/a><\/h3>\n

2010:<\/strong> Anyone searching for the official Google blog\u00a0post\u00a0about\u00a0Google deciding to leave China over censorship was unable to find it on China\u2019s leading search engine, Baidu.<\/p>\n

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Think Like A Blackhat By Matt Cutts<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> A 20-minute video where Cutts went over what he considered to be virtual \u201cblight\u201d (link spam, open landing pages and hacking). Cutts also showed how to think like a spammer.<\/p>\n

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Autodesk\u2019s Carol Bartz Named New Yahoo CEO; Sue Decker To Leave As President<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> Bartz was praised for her management and deal brokering skills but had never run an internet company, and had no advertising background.<\/p>\n

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Help Google Find \u2018Empty Review Sites\u2019<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> Cutts said these pages might run afoul of Google\u2019s webmaster guidelines, and gave specific instructions for reporting this kind of page to Google\u2019s spam team.<\/p>\n

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Obama Stimulus, Predictions And Search<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> In retrospect, it appeared that relative search query volumes (Obama vs. McCain) did presage the outcome of the November election. And it appeared they predicted the recession.<\/p>\n

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Ask.com Partners With NASCAR, Says \u201cSuper Verticals\u201d Will Put It Back In Search Race<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> Coming soon: A NASCAR search engine? Ask also becomes the official search engine of NASCAR.<\/p>\n

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Google Maps Adds Public Transit Data In 50 Cities<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> Once selected, the Transit Layer would display public transportation lines\/routes for the area you were viewing.<\/p>\n

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Spice Up Your ASCII AdWords Campaign With Animated ASCII URLs<\/a><\/h3>\n

2009:<\/strong> How one agency created animated racing ASCII cars in the browser address bar using JavaScript.<\/p>\n

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From Search Marketing Expo (SMX<\/a>)<\/h3>\n
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Past contributions from Search Engine Land\u2019s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)<\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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< January 12<\/a> | Search Marketing History<\/a> | January 14 ><\/p>\n\n

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