There have been some exciting updates at Google This Week with Google’s Area 120 Qaya, updated Review Snippets Rich Results, and Google’s New Maps Feature.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Google Posts Open To Hotels For Update Notices But Not Promotions
- Google Issue Sent Search Console Redirect Error Notifications
- Google Review Snippets Rich Results Report Updated
- Google’s Area 120 Launches Qaya, A Service Offering Web Storefronts For Digital Creators
- You Can Now Link Google Analytics 4 To Google Search Console
- Google Makes Navigating Australian Bushfire Season A Little Easier With New Maps Feature
- Google Chrome Will Show Updated Pricing In The Tabs Grid on Mobile
Google Posts Open To Hotels For Update Notices But Not Promotions
Google is now officially allowing hotels to use Google Posts, but only in a limited manner. Hotels can use Google Posts to give customers notifications about the hotel, but not for offers or promotional purposes.
The new policy says:
1. Hotel businesses can create local posts to provide relevant, timely info to customers. Examples of helpful posts include COVID-19 protocols, updates to amenities or renovations, and events that take place on the property.
2. Hotels can’t create “offer” posts, or any post that suggests the existence of or that links out to deals, promotions, special offers, or discounts. This ensures that customers don’t get confused about where to navigate on the hotel placesheet to find organic and ad prices from partners.
Google Issue Sent Search Console Redirect Error Notifications
Google confirmed an internal issue caused to send out Search Console notifications about redirect errors.
Those emails were sent due to an internal issue and the notifications were not sent due to any website issue.
Google Review Snippets Rich Results Report Updated
Google recently made an update to the review snippets rich results report within Google Search Console.
This change may result in a “reduction in the number of Review objects in this report”.
Google’s Area 120 Launches Qaya, A Service Offering Web Storefronts For Digital Creators
Google launched a new service called Qaya, which will allow creators to easily set up new web storefronts where they can sell their products and services directly to their audiences. The project is the latest to emerge from Google’s in-house project incubator, Area 120.
The new project, Qaya, was co-founded by Nathaniel Naddaff-Hafrey, a founder-in-residence at Area 120 who previously worked on jobs marketplace Kormo aimed at the “next billion” internet users, specifically those in markets like India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
You Can Now Link Google Analytics 4 To Google Search Console
Google announced via the Google Search Central Twitter account that Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console (GSC) properties can now be linked.
This can expand our ability to analyze search traffic and enables us to directly compare search data with site analytics. Google has not announced when it will stop supporting Universal Analytics, but when it does, marketers will be forced on to GA4.
Google Makes Navigating Australian Bushfire Season A Little Easier With New Maps Feature
Google has launched its latest potentially life-saving feature in Google Maps. The new bushfire layer will help Australians to access official real-time bushfire information in a quicker and easier way.
Essentially, this feature gathers all of Google’s bushfire information together and adds it to Maps as a ‘layer’. The idea, unveiled at Search On, is to have up-to-date details about multiple fires at once.
Google Chrome Will Show Updated Pricing In The Tabs Grid On Mobile
The mobile Chrome browser will show updated pricing for products inside a user’s open tabs grid. The company also announced other shopping-oriented features for Chrome, including Google Lens integrations and the rollout of the “Your carts” card.
The “Your carts” card may help to remind users of their abandoned carts, but they’ll also have to remember to scroll to the card to see it.
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed any changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
