Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Update, Perspective Filter, Google Lens, and More

Good morning! My name is Barry Schwartz, and welcome to the Search Buzz video recap. Today is Friday, June 16th, and we have a lot to cover from the past week over at the Search Engine Round Table at Scramtable.com. Let's dive into the latest search news!

Google Update

Google rolled out an unconfirmed update that was pretty significant, starting around June 13th and continuing for a few days. Although Google hasn't confirmed it yet, the tools are showing some big updates. We've seen a lot of tremors over the past couple of months, so it seems like something's brewing. Keep in mind that there were also unconfirmed updates on June 6th, May 22nd, May 17th, May 10th, and early May, so we might get official news soon.

Perspective Filter

Google has finally launched its perspective filter in the U.S search results of English. This filter is now live, and it's deep inside the search menu. Unfortunately, not all users will be able to see it. Still, it's a fantastic feature that Google demoed at IO, and we've seen previews of it before when Google was testing it. The perspective search filter is designed to let users search for news and see a variety of viewpoints.

Google Search Generative Experience

Google has added an exciting update to its search platform, where it pulls information from Google Business profiles – not just the profile itself but deep inside the photos and reviews. This feature allows users to see all the information they need about a business directly in their Google search generative experience AI snapshots. This update is an exciting addition that allows users to get all the crucial information they need about a business in one place, without having to navigate through multiple pages.

Virtual Try-On Feature

Google launched several new features that it announced at IO. The Virtual Try-On feature uses generated AI that shows users how a piece of clothing or an article of apparel will drape on them. Google is working with top retailers including Anthropologie, Everlane, H&M, and Loft to offer this feature. It lets users pick their skin type, body type, and size to see how different outfits look on them—an excellent feature for clothing lovers.

Google Lens

Google has updated its Google Lens features and made them available on Google barge. This allows users to analyze images using Google Lens, paving the way for its AI image recognition capabilities. Additionally, Lens now has an updated shopping feature that does shopping matches. Plus, it can also do skin detections, letting users take a picture and use Google Lens to analyze if there are any skin conditions.

Bing Chat Voice Search and Visual Search

Bing Chat launched the ability to search using users' voices on desktop. Although it is not new since it was launched for mobile devices a few weeks after the Bing Chat launch, it's significant that Bing Chat now has this feature available in desktop browsers. Also, Bing Chat is testing out visual search with image recognition similar to Google Lens. According to Mikhail from Microsoft, Bing Chat is testing out about 5% of all searches, specifically focusing on recognising images on search results.

Search Spam Report

Google has updated and relaunched its search spam report, making it more interactive and user-friendly. Google has expanded its scope beyond spam to include paylinks, malicious behaviour, low-quality content, and other search quality issues. Users can now submit spam reports with ease and receive help along the way, making the process more streamlined.

Video Indexing Report

Google has improved and updated its video indexing report, which now breaks down the responses into three additional categories: outside viewport, too small, and too tall. The update is excellent news for people who rely on video indexing.

Breadcrumb Report

Google has updated the breadcrumb report to give Rich results users greater warning since June 8th, when a spike was observed after the update. Ryan Levering from Google apologised for the "awful error" in the search console. They updated the report to correct missing item ID errors.

The Conch House Story

Matt Diggity brought to light an interesting story about a review site that was posting tons of content and ranking incredibly well in Google search by just scraping content from Amazon. He was able to find two of the six people that ran that website and talked to them. They were posting about 6,000 posts per day by scraping review content from Amazon using a bunch of cool technology to do it. They grew to six million users and 19,000 dollars per day within a month, but they were penalised twice by Google. The site is now dead, but it was a very thrilling story.

Google Ads Console Design

Google Ads has decided to go with the left-side menu that shows pages organised into five levels of categories, as the new Google Ads Console design. This update was for the Advertiser Console design and is now rolling out to all users.

Google Ads Updates and Changes

Here are the latest updates and changes from Google Ads:

New Advertiser Console Design

Google Ads has chosen the new advertiser console design, which features a left-side menu that enables advertisers to organize pages into five levels of categories. This revamped design is already being rolled out to all users.

Integration of AdSense with Google Analytics

After promising for many weeks, Google Ads has finally integrated AdSense with Google Analytics. As Google Analytics three Universal is going away in two weeks, this integration has been rolled into Google Analytics four. This means that if you have AdSense, you can now put your data in Google Analytics with ease. Instructions on how to do this are readily available.

Checkout Button in Google Merchant Center

The Google Merchant Center is currently testing a new checkout button that allows users to skip the product page and go directly to the cart. This feature was available back in 2010 but was removed in 2011. Currently, Google is emailing merchants to inform them about this feature and encouraging them to participate in the pilot. By landing directly in your checkout, ready-to-buy customers can help increase conversions and sales. Check out screenshots of this feature on our website.

Annual Google Merchant Center Update

Google has updated its annual Google Merchant Center specifications, for the 2023 edition. While this update is usually rolled out in April, the 2023 edition was launched in June. There are updates that were effective immediately on June 15th, while others will be effective on July 18th and September 1st. Check out our website for more information.

Broad Match Beta Test in Google Ads

Google has released a beta test that allows advertisers to move all their match types to broad match automatically. When you click on this setting, your phrase match and exact match will all automatically move into broad match. This beta test is still ongoing.

Business Tab in Google Maps

Google Maps for iOS has finally added a business tab to its footer of the results, placing it on par with the Android platform. This feature was previously spotted by Mike Blumenthal. It allows users to get to their business listing very quickly and update it entirely.

Thank you for tuning in to the search buzz video recap. Finally, thank you Wix for sponsoring. Stay safe, healthy, and have an enjoyable and restful weekend!Those were the top search news that we have gathered for the past week! google has launched new updates that were oriented towards simplifying the user experience for customers, and we expect more updates soon. keep an eye out for our next search buzz video recap!