Exciting updates at Google This Week with a new Google Analytics 4 home page, ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ SERP feature, new top spenders prediction template in Google Analytics, and more.
ICYMI, here’s what happened at Google This Week.
- Google’s New ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ Search Features
- Newly Launched Google Analytics 4 Home Page
- New Predict Top Spenders Template in Google Analytics
- Google Acquires Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant
- New Blog Series About Search Console & Data Studio
- Google’s “People Also Ask” feature Displaying Twice on SERP
- Google’s Rapid Air Raid Alerts to Android Users in Ukraine
Google’s New ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ Search Features
Demand for information about the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine has prompted Google to revamp its SERPs with a SERP ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ result page for all related queries. New SERP ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ features includes sections for background information, estimated casualties and photos of the conflict.
Google may eventually roll out those features for more queries, which can impact organic visibility opportunities for brands.
Newly Launched Google Analytics 4 Home Page
Google has released a new home page for Google Analytics 4 properties. Google said the new home page “provides more personalized content as you continue to use Analytics”. Google added that “you can use the page to monitor traffic, navigate around Analytics, and get insights about your websites and mobile apps”.
The new home page is broken into these five parts:
- Overview card shows metrics that are relevant to you based on your behaviour in Analytics
- Realtime card shows the activity as it happens using data from the real-time report
- “Recently viewed” section provides links to parts of Analytics that you visited most recently
- “Because you view frequently” section shows cards that you view often
- “Insights” section shows unusual changes, emerging trends, and other insights about your sites and apps
New Predict Top Spenders Template in Google Analytics
Google announced a new template in Google Analytics called “Predict Top Spenders Template“, where advertisers can predict the top-performing marketing channels. This template makes these powerful predictive metrics much more discoverable and the template removes the guesswork out of how to use them in Explorations.
To access the Predict Top Spenders Template, go to Explore > Template gallery > Use Cases > Predict top spenders. Note that this template will only surface for properties that are eligible for the predicted revenue metric.
Google Acquires Cybersecurity Firm Mandiant
Google announced it is acquiring cybersecurity firm Mandiant, a leader in proactive SaaS-based security best known for uncovering the SolarWinds hack in 2020. Mandiant will become a part of Google Cloud once the deal receives requisite stockholder and regulatory approvals.
Mandiant is perhaps best known for uncovering the SolarWinds attack — a massive operation thought to be sponsored by the Russian government that compromised computers across the US federal government.
New Blog Series About Search Console & Data Studio
Google is launching a new blog post series dedicated to helping people do more with Data Studio when it comes to analysing Search Console reports. In the first post, Google advocate Daniel Waisberg goes over how to connect and enhance data with geographical regions.
Upcoming posts in this new blog series, Google will teach how to create different types of dashboards with step-by-step instructions.
Google’s “People Also Ask” feature Displaying Twice on SERP
Google is testing out adding another “People Also Ask box” feature on a single results page.
No official announcement yet if this will be a new SERP feature or if this is some sort of bug.
Google’s Rapid Air Raid Alerts to Android Users in Ukraine
Google rolled out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system in Ukraine as the Russian invasion of the country continues. The alerts are rolled out on Android phones to supplement air raid sirens in the country.
In the same blog post, Google also announced that it will continue its work to limit recommendations for a number of Russian state-funded media outlets across its platforms. The company is also pausing most of its commercial activities in Russia.
“Following our announcement last week that we paused Google ads in Russia, we’ve now paused the vast majority of our commercial activities in Russia — including ads on our properties and networks globally for all Russian-based advertisers, new Cloud sign ups, the payments functionality for most of our services, and monetization features for YouTube viewers in Russia.”
Thank You for Reading
Have you noticed the ‘Russian invasion of Ukraine’ result page or any other changes from Google this week?
Check back next Friday for the latest from Google This Week.
