Daily Search Forum Recap: June 19, 2024

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 posted its FAQs on AI Overviews, asking why you can’t disable then. Google may be showing fewer Reddit links. Google explains when it is not a good thing when Googlebot is crawling you more. Google is testing 6 people also ask by default. Google launched menu buttons in the Google Maps results. Google AdSense has a new privacy and messaging feature for privacy rules.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• 
  Google AI Overviews FAQs Including Why You Can’t Disable AI Overviews
  
  
  Google has posted a new document in its forums named frequently asked questions about AI Overviews. In this document it has a section named “why can’t I disable AI Overviews?” The answer is that Google’s “goal is to help people find the information they’re looking for quickly and reliably.”
• 
  Report On If Google Showing Fewer Reddit Links In Search?
  
  
  Some in the SEO industry have been asking if Google has been showing fewer links in its search results to Reddit over the past several weeks. So Mordy Obserstein pulled some Semrush data that showed a slight downtick in Reddit results in Google’s Discussion and Forums section.
• 
  Google: Two Common Reasons When A Spike In Crawling Is Bad
  
  
  Google’s Gary Illyes posted on LinkedIn with two common examples of when a spike in Googlebot activity, crawling, is a bad thing. The short answer is when Googlebot gets to crawling an infinite section of your site (like calendar pages that goes on forever) and when your site is hacked with a ton of new hacked pages.
• 
  Google Tests Two More People Also Ask Results (6 PPA)
  
  
  Google is testing showing two more people also ask results, by default, which is a total of six people also ask, instead of the typical four people also ask that Google would show in its search results.





• 
  Google Local Panels Gains Menu Button
  
  
  Google seems to be adding a “menu” button to the Google Business Profiles, the local panels, in the web search results. I think Google has tested this one and off over the years, but as Marcin Karwowski noted, it seems to be rolling out now to some businesses.





• 
  New Google AdSense Privacy & Messaging For Users To Opt Out
  
  
  Google has begun rolling out a new privacy and messaging feature for AdSense ads in some US states. This is to comply with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah privacy laws. The feature allows the site to communicate to the user about opting out of the sale or sharing of their personal information.





• 
  Google Japanese Circular Keyboard
  
  
  Here is a photo from Daniel Waisberg’s trip to the Google Japan office, and it shows these circular Japanese keyboards on display. There are other items on display.

Other Great Search Threads:

• It’s generally fine. Discovery will perhaps take a bit longer, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it, unless you see delays in linked pages being picked up., Martin Splitt on X
• (Update about Review Profiles) Today Google has sent out an email and have added a turn off toggle to keep reviews profile private even after 24 June. Email from Google and addition of profile privacy toggle here, Gagan Ghotra on X
• Google has updated it’s Search Help page “About your profile on Google” to now include information about Reviews Profiles. Reviews Profiles may still appear in search results even if you have turned on it to be PRIVATE, Gagan Ghotra on X
• In early June I shared about the crazy volatility I was seeing across finance sites starting on 5/10. I saw som e very big drops there (confirmed btw). Well, some of those drops just reversed course for a number of sites. Check out, Glenn Gabe on X
• So far Google has indexed 152K review profiles and perhaps all those USERS aren’t event aware of the fact that automatically a profile for their name was created and now someone can see all of their reviews in one place., Gagan Ghotra on X
• If you registered for SMX, definitely make sure you check out the presentation from @RyanJones about AI overviews. Really good stuff. He covers how AI Overviews work (or don’t), patent info about how they work (including why/how web, Glenn Gabe on X
• This is my biannual reminder that it is okay to speak at a conference for free with nothing being in it for you other than you get extreme amounts of joy out of sharing your thoughts with other people, and trying to helping them t, Wil Reynolds on X

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

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