Industry News

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google says URL extensions don't matter for SEO...

Google's John Mueller several years after posting a video named "Will removing '.html' from my URLs help my site?" still says URL extensions do not matter for SEO. He said it doesn't matter if you go with a .htm or a .html or go with no extension at all.

Google is testing a new feature to replace all those copy-and-paste emoji websites. You know, when you want to know what an emoji is for a specific emotion and you go to Google and it brings up websites that have the emojis and you can click copy to your clipboard... Well, Google is doing that right in search.

Google has made its first expansion of AI Mode outside of the US by announcing AI Mode is now available in Search Labs for those based in India. As you know, AI Mode is fully live, outside of Search Labs, for all US users and now Google is expanding access internationally.

Google is testing moving the social profile links above the Google Posts section in the Google Business Profiles / local listings within Google Search. This seems to be being tested right now.

I am not sure what this is but Google is testing (or maybe it is a bug) an answer box of sorts, in a blue highlight background (grayish on dark mode) with an answer. But there is no label on the result, is it an AI Overview, featured snippet or some other box?

Google is testing placing a light blue bar on the left side of the search results snippets title link. I am not sure why Google is doing this but it does add some flavor and color to the search results.

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

Jason Howell on the AI Inside podcast had Nick Fox, VP of Search at Google, on a few weeks ago. In that interview, he said that the methodologies used by the click studies done on AI Overviews can be "questioned." He added, "from our point of view the web is thriving."

Google's Jeff Dean, the lead of Google AI and a Google veteran since 1999, highlighted Google's index freshness as one of its key advantages in its AI services. On X, Jeff posted, "Index freshness is something I and many others at Google have worked on for many years."