This week Google continued it’s battle with the ACCC, stating news businesses will have the ability to “game” the system. Google is adding and testing new ad units in Search, new features coming for DV360, plus Google is partnering with hotels to bring you a more contactless stay.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Google Says News Businesses Will Have the Ability to “Game” the System
- Coming Soon to Display & Video 360
- Google Ads Testing Product Image Rotation
- Google Testing Tours & Activities Ad Unit
- New AdSense Reporting Released
- New Video Search Snippet Carousel
- Google Piloting a New Reporting System for Bugs and Security Issues
- Google Partners with Hotels to Bring You a More Contactless Stay
- Home Activities Structured Data Now Supported in Search
Google Says News Businesses Will Have the Ability to “Game” the System
On Monday the battle between the ACCC and Google continued with Google publishing a blog post stating the new media bargaining rules would give news businesses the ability to “game” the system.
“If we are required to give one group special advice about how to get a higher ranking, they’d be able to game the system at the expense of other website owners, businesses, and creators, even if that doesn’t provide the best result to you.”
The code, as it’s currently drafted, would mean Google needs to give news media businesses 28 days’ notice of algorithm changes that may materially affect referral traffic to news, changes designed to affect ranking of news behind paywalls, and any substantial changes to the display and presentation of news and advertising directly associated with news.
“28-day advance notice is really a 28-day waiting period before we can make important changes to our systems,” Google said.
“That’s 28 days before we can roll out defences against new kinds of spam or fraud. 28 days of extra delay before we can launch new features that are already available to the rest of the world. And 28 days before we can fix things that break.”
Coming Soon to Display & Video 360
Over the next few weeks, you’ll see a few changes to Display & Video 360.
Use Modelling to Recover Lost Conversions Due to Browser Changes
On September 28, all attribution models will be opted into conversion modelling by default. Today, the settings to create a new attribution model in Campaign Manager and DV360 enable you to choose which models should include modelled conversions in future.
Select an Attribution Model at the Line Item Level for Reporting and Automated Bidding
Soon, you’ll be able to select any Floodlight attribution model at the line item level for both bidding and reporting. You’ll see a new option to assign an attribution model in a line item’s Conversion tracking settings. Data-driven models are available if you manage Floodlight in Campaign Manager.
Monitor Bulk Actions Across DV360 with New Dedicated Page
There’ll soon be a new page in DV360 where you can monitor your current and past bulk actions, including bulk line edits, entity duplications and Structured Data File uploads and downloads.
Google Ads Testing Product Image Rotation
Over on Twitter, Jackson Lo shared a video of a set of Google Shopping Ads that show the image change and rotate to a new product image on hover. We can’t replicate so it seems Google is testing this as a feature.
Not sure if this is new, but the thumbnail in Google Ads will animate on hover. Opening up the same search in incognito and I can’t reproduce. Looks like it might be a test.#googleads
/cc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/6FKaxnekqS
— Jackson Lo ?? (@jackson_lo) August 21, 2020
Google Testing Tours & Activities Ad Unit
Google has started testing a tours and activities ad unit at the top of the Search results page. For now, we can see attractions from Viator, GetYourGuide and Tiqets for example. Eventually, travellers end up on the tour sites to book the tickets.
“It is Skift’s understanding that the vendors, in order to participate, need to agree to long-term licenses allowing Google to use their tours content for Google’s own business. Otherwise these attractions’ vendors can’t participate – and sacrifice all that traffic to their websites.”
New AdSense Reporting Released
Google has released a new version of AdSense reporting. It is being launched in phases so it may be a week or two before you see it. The interface has been redesigned and charts have been improved and more closely integrate with the table.
You can now display each data series on a chart with a single click. Google has also improved the mobile experience and added more in-product help.
“In order to make reports more accurate, we’re limiting reporting data to three years for all AdSense products such as AdSense for content, AdSense for search, etc., and removing YouTube and AdMob data from AdSense reports.”
Google said they’ll focus on contextualising Reporting data with actionable suggestions next year as well as upgrading the API with more parameters and signals.
New Video Search Snippet Carousel
Google is testing out a new video search snippet carousel, similar to the image carousel but with video snippets. Valentin Pletzer spotted it on Google and shared on Twitter. It shows the play button and the length of the video.
Google Piloting a New Reporting System for Bugs and Security Issues
Google is testing a new feature to let users request a review of their site. On the security issues help page, site owners can report a potential false-positive security issue or request a re-review of the security issue in Google Search Console. For now, this is only a test and is available for those coming from English-language help pages.
The best way to resolve security issues is to first consult Search Console’s help pages: https://t.co/R2WVO2HhnP
But now, we’re also providing a “Report a Security Issue” button to these pages, for site owners to report potential false positives or to request a re-review. pic.twitter.com/PTLaUszjIh— Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) August 26, 2020
Google Partners with Hotels to Bring You a More Contactless Stay
Google is partnering with hotels to bring you a “personal hotel media hub” to make your stay more contactless. Hotels partnering with Google now have a Nest Hub smart display set up in each hotel room to address common service requests through voice command.
Guests can say things like “Hey Google, schedule a wake up call,” or “Hey Google, ask my hotel for extra towels,” or “Hey Google, what time does the pool close?” to get immediate answers.
Some hotels also offer a faster check out using the Google Assistant for faster turnover. It can also surface a mid-stay survey for guests with the hotel being notified if something isn’t up to standard. The assistant can also promote specials.
Home Activities Structured Data Now Supported in Search
Google has added new search development documents for home activities structured data. The rich results give users more details on the video or online class offered including a description, how to register or watch. The home activity rich results are currently only available in the US on mobile.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back in next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
