Industry News

On Thursday, December 19th at 12 pm ET, Google began its release of the Google December 2024 spam update. It seems like that update kicked into gear the day or so after it was released, but honestly, it is hard to tell if the damage is from the spam update or the tail end of the completed Google December 2024 core update.

Google has offered up its remedies over its antitrust case with the Department of Justice - it was forced to, it didn't want to. Google said it will appeal the Court's decision but the process requires that we first file proposed remedies.

Google is now showing payment options on some retailer's knowledge panels. This comes after Google started asking for the payment options a business accepts in Google Merchant Center, although, it might be unrelated (we don't know).

Google Ads seems to be testing showing search ads in the Google Search results without ad copy, without the ad description text you added to your ads. I guess Google wants to see what type of impact this has on ad performance.

Microsoft is testing a new section in Bing Search titled "How to pick." It helps you figure out what product you should pick, by breaking down the options and configurations.

Google Ads added a new brand control override for Performance Max campaigns that lets you override the exclusion for Shopping Ads. The check box is under the brand exclusions section and reads, "Allow Shopping ads on searches that mention excluded brands."

And now we have the Kwanzaa decorations live in the Google Search results. Just search for [Kwanzaa] to see them. Google also went live with the Christmas decorations today and the Hanukkah decorations last week.

Christmas is around the corner and Google finally posted its Christmas decorations in Google Search today. We already have the Hanukkah decorations live and now we have the Christmas decorations - we are now waiting on the Kwzanzaa decorations.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...

Google has finished rolling out the December 2024 core update, it finished super fast and was incredibly volatile. The volatility started over the weekend but lasted throughout the whole update. Google then released the December 2024 spam update...