This day in search marketing history: March 10

Google and Bing “exception lists”

In 2011, Google and Bing revealed at SMX West that they have “exception lists” for websites that might get hit by some algorithm signals.

Neither search engine suggested that these lists were used to boost sites in their search results or exempt them from any overall algorithm changes.

However, some sites might be excluded from the impact of particular ranking signals on Google, according to its spam chief, Matt Cutts.

Google followed up with a longer statement that read, in part:

“Like other search engines (including Microsoft’s Bing), we also use exception lists when specific algorithms inadvertently impact websites, and when we believe an exception list will significantly improve search quality. We don’t keep a master list protecting certain sites from all changes to our algorithms.”

Read all about it in Google & Bing Have Whitelists – “Exception Lists” – For Some Algorithm Signals and dig deeper in Transcript: Google & Bing On Whitelists & Exception Lists.

Also on this day

Russia-based advertisers can no longer reach global audiences on Google properties and networks

2022: This policy change took widespread ad suspensions from platforms across the industry into new territory by targeting businesses in Russia.

Twitter Shops lets brands showcase 50 products

2022: It was only available to select merchants in the U.S.

Pinterest adds in-app checkout and personalized shopping recommendations

2022: Billed as a “personal shopping concierge, powered by a taste-driven algorithm,” the “Your Shop” feature was a recommendations engine designed to suggest products, brands and creators to users based on their activities and preferences.

Google showing ‘key moments’ feature on multiple videos in search results

2020: The video timeline feature was getting more visibility in mobile search.

Coronavirus disrupts search, digital ad budgets

2020: With ad spend expected to fall in many sectors, media buyers shared what they were seeing on the ground.

Yelp to Congress: Don’t investigate Google without looking at search

2020: The reviews site wanted to stop Google’s “self-preferencing” in the local SERP.

Search in Pics: Android ice sculpture, AMP team & cloud balloons

2017: 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.

Searchmetrics study shows most apps are not utilizing Google App Indexing

2016: While most top websites had apps, only 30% of those Android apps and 19% of those iOS apps had deployed App Indexing.

Google PLAs: Testing scrollable carousel on desktop & numbered rankings for “best” products go live

2016: The desktop carousel test simulated mobile. A new ranking treatment for “top-rated” products was live on mobile and desktop.

Google Analysis Shows Over 80% Of HTTPS URLs Not Displaying In Google’s Search Results

2015: Despite many sites already supporting HTTPS, 80% of those URLs did not show in the Google search results because the webmaster was communicating to Google to display the HTTP version.

Patrick Pichette, Google’s CFO, To Retire

2015: Google’s long-term CFO told the company he wanted to retire over the next six months and would help the company find a replacement.

Prediction: Apple Will Not Renew Google As Safari Default Search Engine

2015: Spoiler alert: Wrong.

Bing Partners With NCAA, Will Predict March Madness Games & Help Fans Complete Brackets

2015: Bing turned its predictive science smarts toward the unpredictable college basketball tournament.

Google Sees Deeper App Content As Key To Mobile Usage

2014: Google had been indexing deep links for Android apps, though not iOS.

Google Debuts AdWords Consumer Ratings Annotations In US, UK & Canada

2014: The annotations spotlighted strongly rated aspects of an advertiser’s business such as customer service, a rewards program or shipping practices in search ads.

Growth Of Mobile Search “Like Seeing My Second Child Grow” Says Google Search Chief At #SXSW

2013: Also, SEO isn’t bull and the biggest challenges in search were the knowledge graph, speech recognition and natural language.

Google On Bing Attack Ads: “Others Should Focus On Building Good Products”

2013: “We focus on our users. Others should focus on building good products, too.”

New: Google Lets You Block Any Site From Search Results

2011: Google announced that you could hide or block certain sites from showing up in search results.

Google Tests “Check-in Offers” At SXSW

2011: Latitude check-ins would bring offers from local businesses in Austin, Texas (for SXSW).

Eye-Tracking Study: Everybody Looks At Organic Listings, But Most Ignore Paid Ads On Right

2011: Whether using Google or Bing, all 24 participants looked at the organic search results for their queries, but between 70% and 80% ignored the paid ads on the right side of the page.

US Commerce Secretary Eric Schmidt?

2011: Spoiler alert: No.

LinkedIn Lauches a Social News Site

2011: LinkedIn Today was totally algorithmically generated. Users could follow news publications/blogs or industries.

Foursquare Upgrades Its Business Tools With New Specials, Better Analytics

2011: Foursquare’s new specials management system would give business owners more control and new options for rewarding customers who checked in.

Whrrl Upgrades Personalization Engine To Fuel Discovery

2011: Through a system of rewards and by encouraging social behavior, Whrrl enabled people to check-in, make a list of things they wanted to do locally and join affinity groups of people with similar interests.

Ride Don’t Drive: Google Adds Bike Directions To Maps

2010: This was one of the most requested missing features on Google Maps.

Google Apps Marketplace Opens For B2Business

2010: it allowed companies and developers to gain access and sell into Google’s “2 million businesses and 25 million Google Apps users.”

Video: Does Google Own Us?

2010: A short but well-done video on how much Google knows about us, possibly implying that Google owns its users.

comScore Search Share For February: Bing Grows (Yet Slows) And Yahoo Declines Again

2010: Google regained some share “lost” in January and Bing’s gains continued, albeit at a somewhat slowing pace.

comScore: Android Shows Strength As Mobile Web Usage Grows

2010: Quarterly mobile data showed strong growth for Android handsets in the U.S. and an increase in mobile web usage.

Watch The New Bing UK Commercial

2010: The new UK ad blitz by Microsoft was aimed at capturing market share from Google in that region.

Collecta Launches Mobile Version Of Real-Time Search Engine

2010: Collecta mobile included real-time news, photos, and status updates from more than 10 million content sources – from Twitter to Flickr and CNN and blogs.

Yahoo Remains Big In Japan (& Beating Google)

2009: Yahoo held over 51% of search market share in Japan, whereas Google only held 38%.

Wolfram Alpha To Challenge Google?

2009: A secret search engine named Wolfram Alpha was being designed by Stephen Wolfram, a British mathematician.

SEMPO Report Cuts Search Ads Forecast

2009: Search marketing spending would increase only 9% to $14.7 billion in 2009 from $13.5 billion in 2008, SEMPO said.

Google Pitches Media Buying “Dashboard” To Skeptical Ad Agencies

2008: Google’s Tim Armstrong outlined a provocative and much larger vision for the company that would incorporate it more centrally into major ad agencies’ media buying and planning processes.

Search Engine Billionaires & Yahoo’s Decker Boosts Her Salary

2008: Sergey Brin ranked at number 32 with $18.7 billion, Larry Page at number 33 with $18.6 billion, and CEO Eric Schmidt was ranked 142 with $6.6 billion.

Search Biz: Google Stock Hits New Low; News Corp Says No On Yahoo

2008: News Corp wasn’t throwing Yahoo a life preserver to fend off Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg said maybe Facebook was “ahead of itself” in calling its ads so revolutionary; and more.

February 2008: Search Engine Land’s Most Popular Stories

WSJ: Google Testing TV Ads

2007: The effort, conducted with a small group of advertisers, was aimed at testing the computer and network infrastructure needed for Google to broker and deliver commercials to cable systems more widely.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

Why on-site search should be a priority for marketers (SMX Next 2021)
Key trends in PPC, reporting and analytics in 2021 and beyond (SMX Report 2021)
The Next Generation Of Structured Data: Taking Markup To The Next Level (SMX West 2015)
The Big SMX West 2011 Recap

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.