This day in search marketing history: February 23

Google penalizes Natural News

In 2017, Google confirmed that a controversial alternative medicine website was delisted because of a webmaster guidelines violation, not because of its political views.

Natural News, a “pro-Trump” news site, claimed it was banned for its political views.

However, Google’s John Mueller said the site was penalized due to sneaky mobile redirects. He advised them to clean it up and submit a reconsideration request through Search Console.

Natural News would return to Google five days later.

Read all about it in Natural News was not banned from Google over fake news.

Also on this day

Google Ads latency issues and error messages within advertiser console

2022: Google confirmed the issue and was investigating.

Google AdSense earnings report may be buggy

2022: Publishers were complaining that the report showing their estimated earnings on the AdSense console overview page was wrong and significantly lower than expected.

Google AdSense separates YouTube earnings into its own payments account

2022: In addition, the platform also added a dedicated AdSense for YouTube homepage.

BrightEdge acquires Oncrawl in enterprise SEO shakeup

2022: Oncrawl would continue to run under BrightEdge’s umbrella.

Advertisers have until February 2022 to adjust to Google’s new Partner Program requirements

2021: The changes were based on Partner feedback around badge criteria and more clarity regarding Program benefits.

Yelp’s Waitlist, analytics and POS updates aim to address shifting consumer preferences

2021: Waitlist now supported takeout orders. Yelp also added enhanced analytics for multi-location restaurants.

Google Assistant to get multiple new languages, distribution and skills

2018: The Assistant would soon speak 30 languages and be able to offer mobile carrier customer support.

Search outpaced social for referral traffic last year, driving 35% of site visits vs social’s 26% share of visits

2018: 2017 was the first time since 2014 search owned a larger share of visits over social.

Search in Pics: Google’s Captain America, a mural at Google & a shiny Google slide

2018: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have and more.

Four US presidents in the KKK? Google’s latest problem with featured answers

2017: Google listed four U.S. presidents as Klan members, even though there was no conclusive evidence any were.

Gboard adds new languages, voice typing, new emojis & doodles

2017: Google upgraded their iOS keyboard extension to support voice dialing and 15 more languages.

Live: Google Launches AMP Listings In Mobile Search Results, For Some

2016: A day earlier than expected, Google pushed AMP results in the Google mobile news carousel.

Google Looking Into Review Stars Dropping Out Of The Search Results

2016: There were huge drops in reviews and review stars.

Bing’s CelebsLike.me Finds Your Oscar Doppelganger

2016: Bing created a site that let users upload photos of themselves to find their look-alike celebrities.

Google Showing Colorful Line Separators In Mobile Search Results Snippets

2015: Many mobile searchers on iOS and Android were noticing Google testing a new mobile interface.

Android “Default Search” Class Action Against Google Tossed By Judge

2015: A judge found the connection between “default search” status on Android devices and consumer harm to be too tenuous or speculative.

Will Google Penalize Chromebooks, Google Analytics, AdWords & Google+ For Using Advertorials?

2013: A day after warning publishers against advertorials, would Google’s search team have to penalize parts of its own company for running advertorials?

Google Updates AdWords API Terms To Comply With FTC Antitrust Settlement

2013: Google didn’t permit automated, batch copying of AdWords campaign data for export to another ad network in the past.

Google Images Related Searches Now More Visual

2012: You could mouse over the related search phrase and Google would open an image preview of what the first three images looked like.

Valentine’s Day AdWords “War” Among Florists Highlights Another Google Challenge

2012: Imagine searching on your own company’s name and finding a competitor’s ad that said you were “Sold Out” right on your business’ most important holiday.

Search Alliance Beginning adCenter Rollout In the UK, France & Ireland

2012: The Yahoo/Microsoft Search Alliance began to transition Yahoo Search Marketing campaigns to adCenter accounts.

Bing Posts To Facebook Timeline If You Use New “Linked Pages”

2012: Using the feature gave Bing permission to post to Facebook on your behalf.

Yahoo Working On Search Across Devices

2012: Yahoo has begun to test the ability to start a query on one device and continue it on another. 

Is SEO Killing America?

2012: It’s much easier for news organizations to sell news that reaffirms our opinions than news that educates and challenges us.

Google Drops Facebook Sync On Nexus S: Google/Facebook Battle Continues

2011: Google said it was because Facebook contacts “cannot be exported from the device” and thus do not allow users to “control their data” as freely as Google would like.

Obscure Belgian Case Threatens To Open Copyright “Pandora’s Box” For Google In Europe

2011: A 2006 Belgian case that found Google in breach of copyright law for indexing newspaper headlines and snippets without permission was on appeal and approaching conclusion.

Wired On Google’s Algorithm

2010: A detailed look at the evolution Google’s search algorithm over the years.

Google To Drop Ad Manager For DoubleClick For Publishers

2010: Google announced that Google Ad Manager was ultimately going to be replaced by DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP).

By The Numbers: Twitter Vs. Facebook Vs. Google Buzz

2010: 600 vs. 700 vs. 55 per second.

Google Testing Comparison Ads In UK

2010: For credit card-related searches.

Google Resumes China Talks Despite Evidence Of Govt-Hacking Connection

2010: Google re-engaged with China around its ability to continue operating its number two search engine in the country in an “unfiltered” way.

Xerox Sues Google & Yahoo Over Search Patent. Copy That!

2010: Xerox wanted compensation and to prevent Google and Yahoo from using the technology.

Is Redmond The Puppet Master In Google EU Anti-Trust Complaints?

2010: Google used some blunt language about two of the three complainant companies’ relationships with Microsoft.

Yahoo To Broadly Integrate Twitter Across Properties

2010: Yahoo announced that it had deepened its relationship with Twitter and would be integrating Twitter’s feeds and content across its network.

Google Webmaster Central Launches YouTube Channel

2009: This channel would eventually contain videos from Googlers on how to help your website succeed in Google.

Why Is Google Now Requiring Ringtones Ads To Disclose Pricing

2009: Supposedly, the Florida Attorney General’s office had “convinced” Google to require AdWords advertisers to disclose this pricing information in any ad that is selling ringtones.

Will the “Deep Web” Slay Google?

2009: An engine that could mine all that Deep Web data and present “answers” to users would be quite exciting.

Will Obama Be The Downfall Of Google?

2009: The appointment of Christine Varney as Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the U.S. Department of Justice could have led to more antitrust problems for Google.

Yahoo CEO Bartz to Reorg for More ‘Top-Down’ Authority

2009: Yet another Yahoo reorganization was coming.

And The Oscar For Best Search Engine For Oscar Winners Goes To … Microsoft Live & Ask.com

2009: The winners were shown right at the top of the page.

Google Explains The NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW, NOARCHIVE & NOSNIPPET META Tags

2007: A basic but clear explanation.

Search Suggestions The Default At Google China?

2007: Google China, by default, seemed to have Google Suggest turned on.

Major Microsoft adCenter Bug Costs Millions

2007: Advertisers were being charged astronomical prices per click, even though they had set their bids lower.

Yahoo Search Improves Movie Shortcut Results

2007: They added information including movie trailers, user and critic ratings, a brief summary, and movie showtimes.

Top 25 Web 2.0 Start Ups To Watch

2007: A ranking of the top 25 up and coming Web 2.0 companies.

Yahoo Searchlight Awards Last Night

2007: Top campaigns contained elements of traditional media, online display advertising and search.

Happy Anniversary, ResearchBuzz!

2007: 400 “issues” appeared in nearly nine years of publication.

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

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.

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