SEO: Google’s New Free Hotel Listings Option
Google has announced that it is now offering a free version of its hotel listings, this is now in addition to the paid option.

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• Google Hotel search showing free listings in results

SEO: Google: When Unindexing Pages From Search Use Noindex, Not Robots.txt
Google’s John Mueller said that when you want to “unindex,” remove indexed pages from Google Search, you should not block Google with robots.txt, but rather use noindex.

SEO: Google Search Does Not Use Blockchain (For Timestamps)
Google’s John Mueller said Google does not use blockchain for search.

SEO: Google PageSpeed Insights Now Supports HTTP/2 – Scores Might Go Up
Google announced that its PageSpeed Insights tool as of March 3, 2021 uses http/2 to make network requests, that is if the server supports it. If your site is on HTPT/2, you may see your PageSpeed Insights scores go up as a result.

SEO: Google brings Full Coverage news to search results
Google announced it is bringing the “Full Coverage” feature you can find in Google News directly to Google Search. The company said it is “now bringing Full Coverage to Search, making it easier for more people to explore all aspects of a story from a variety of perspectives.”

SEO: Google on Choosing the Best Anchor Text
Google’s Mueller tells how to choose the best anchor text for links.

SEO: If Google Can’t Fetch/Read Your Sitemap File? Try A New File URL.
Google’s John Mueller was asked about an error with Sitemaps files. The question was around Google not being able to fetch and read two of the few XML Sitemap files but those files are perfectly valid. John said it can be a lot of issues but there is a trick you can try.

SEO: Google: We Won’t Build Alternative Identifiers To Track Users Across The Web
Google said “we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

SEO: Google’s Mueller on Keys to a Successful Site Migration
Two tips on how to ensure a successful site migration according to Google’s John Mueller.

SEO: Brave Browser to Launch Its Own Search Engine
Makers of the Brave web browser are developing a privacy-focused, user-first search engine.

SEO: Google: What’s new in App + Web properties
Google introduced enhancements that allow you to measure multiple websites, do even more custom analysis, and get faster insights from your data.

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• New predictive capabilities in Google Analytics
  
  
• Take control of how data is used in Google Analytics
  
  
• Introducing the new Google Analytics

SEO: Google: Manage tags easily and safely with the new Community Template Gallery
Google created the new Community Template Gallery for Google Tag Manager. Community Template Gallery is an open platform where partners can share their tag templates. Businesses can then customise these templates to easily implement tags on their websites.

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• Improve performance and security with Server-Side Tagging
  
  
• Measure conversions while respecting user consent choices

SEO: Google: The mobile challenge, and how to measure it
Google shares how to on mobile conversion with Relative Mobile Conversion Rate (Rel mCvR), which is calculated by dividing the mobile conversion rate with the desktop conversion rate.

Related Articles:

• Beyond the ad: Conversion Optimization

SEO: Google: A new way to unify app and website measurement in Google Analytics
Google is announcing a new to measure apps and websites together for the first time in Google Analytics.

SEO: Google: Introducing BigQuery parameters in Data Studio
Google shares how to on running parameterised queries. This provides better customisation and interaction options to your users while making your reports faster.

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• Get to insights quicker with Data Studio’s new home page
  
  
• “Up and to the right” with Data Studio
  
  
• Do more with Data Studio Community Visualizations
  
  
• New Enterprise IT Controls for Data Studio
  
  
• Access Google Surveys and Google Analytics 4 data in Data Studio

SEO: Google: Extend the reach of your site personalization in Google Optimize
Google shares hot to on Personalisation Feature in Google Optimise to help businesses customise sites so their customers can find exactly what they’re looking for, when they’re looking for it.

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• Deliver consistent site experiences with Google Optimize
  
  
• A new Optimize feature to keep your website updated through COVID-19

SEO: WordPress Gutenberg 10.1 Boosts Core Web Vitals
Update to the Gutenberg editor improves WordPress Core Web Vitals

SEO: Google Short Videos Now Include Facebook Videos
When Google first launched “short videos” in Google Search it seemed to just show videos from YouTube. Shortly after we spotted both TikTok and Instagram videos in this short video carousel. Now we are notified Google can also show videos from Facebook.

SEO: Google Rolls Out New Key Moment Videos Interface
Google seems to be rolling out a new interface for key moments videos they have been testing for maybe a year now.

SEO: Google Sites Sitemap Documentation Removed
Official developer pages updated to reflect that Google Sites no longer creates sitemaps.

SEO: Microsoft Bing updates search results interface to make it more visually immersive
Microsoft Bing updates recipe results, similar looking items, expandable carousels, infographic panels and local answers design.

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• Microsoft Bing Rolls Out 5 Upgrades to Search Results
  
  
• Microsoft Bing Search More Visual Updates

SEO: WordPress Considers Dropping Support for IE 11
WordPress announced it’s seeking feedback on dropping Internet Explorer 11 support to gain considerable improvements to performance and development

SEO: Google FAQ Rich Results Issue With Yoast Resolved
Google changed how it parses FAQ schema and it caused FAQ rich result to drop from sites that use Yoast.

SEO: Rich Results Disappear? Google Says It Might Be A Site Wide Quality Issue.
Google’s John Mueller listed a few reasons why your site may not show rich results in the Google Search Results. One of the three reasons is that sometimes Google does not trust the site enough, on the site level, for Google to warrant that the site shows rich results.

SEO: Google Updates PageSpeed Insights Scores
Google announced that in general, Page Speed scores will all rise as of March 3rd, 2021.

SEO: Google Will Not Track Users After Replacing Third-Party Cookies
Google will not find alternative ways to track users after phasing out third-party cookies.

SEO: Google On How to Use Search Console’s Crawl Stats Report
Google’s Daniel Wasiberg breaks down Search Console’s new crawl stats report in a new explainer video.

SEO: Google will not build or use alternate identifiers to track users across the web
Google reiterated that its products will use Federated Learning of Cohorts to enable advertisers to target audiences.

SEO: Google Recommends Pyramid Navigation Structure For Large Sites
Google’s John Mueller shed some light on pyramid navigation structure when it comes to Google crawling and ranking large sites.

SEO: Google On Pagination: Would It Be Okay If The Page Was Only Accessible Via Your Site
John Mueller of Google had someone look at this pagination and SEO issue a different way. John said “if someone only saw this page from my site, would that be ok?” If the answer is yes, that would be okay, then “just noindex” the page

Paid: New Google Ads Evasive Ad Content Policy
Google is starting a new Google Ads content policy called “Evasive Ad Content.” Evasive Ad Content will extend the prohibited manipulations of trademark terms in ad text to domains, subdomains, and logos; prohibit usage of invisible UNICODE characters in ads that add no value to the ad content for users; and disallow manipulations of images or videos to hide policy violating content.

Paid: Google Ads mobile app adds custom and performance insights notifications
Custom and performance insights notifications have been added to the Google Ads mobile app. The updates can help advertisers keep tabs on the metrics that are important to them and notify them of significant performance changes.

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• Google Ads Mobile App Gains Custom Notifications & Performance Insights
  
  
• Google Ads App Gets New Features After 3 Months of No Updates

Social: TikTok Q&A Launches in Video Comment Sections
TikTok Q&A launches as a new way for creators to keep their audience engaged.

Social: Instagram Lets Up to 4 People Go Live in One Stream
Instagram is doubling the capacity of live streams, letting up to four people go live at once.

Local: Google My Business report shows how people found your business
Google My Business has upgraded the new performance report, which was an upgrade from the Insights report, to add a section for people who viewed your business profile. This new section shows you how people found your local listing, either on desktop or mobile and either through Google Search or Google Maps.

Local: Google My Business New Available Performance Metrics Help Doc
Google has updated the Google My Business “available performance metrics” help document to talk more about the new performance reports. Google added a section for “users who viewed your profile” and added more details to the other section.

Local: Semrush to Publicly Sell Shares on New York Stock Exchange
Semrush files to go public, allowing people to buy shares in the company for the first time.

SEO: Google Sites Stopped Generating XML Sitemap Files
Google Sites over a decade, almost 15 years, has automatically generated XML sitemap files to be used for Google Search Console. Well, that is no longer the case. Google has removed the Google Sites sitemaps details from the documentation. If you’ve used Google Sites to create and verify a site, Google Sites will automatically generate a sitemap for you. You cannot modify the sitemap, but you can submit it to Google if you want to read the sitemap report data. Note that your sitemap might not be displayed properly if you have more than 1,000 pages in a single sub-directory.

SEO: Google Tests Bell Icon To Follow Updates On Medical Knowledge Panels
Google is testing showing a bell icon and testing this on medical knowledge panels.

SEO: Google Chrome To Support Scroll To Text Links With Images & Videos
Google’s Chrome Developers announced the team that brought you text fragments links is working on extending the format to images.

SEO: Google See Results That Mention Filter On Left Side Panel
Google testing a search refinement feature named “see results that mention” on the right side bar. But now, Google is testing it on the left side.

SEO: Google: Internal Linking Gives Google A Sense Of Page Level Importance
John Mueller said that Google doesn’t really look at the XML sitemap priority field. So instead, you really need to communicate which pages are more important to you through your internal linking. The more you link from your more important pages to other pages, the more Google will understand that the pages you are linking to on your website are important.

SEO: Google’s John Mueller on Troubleshooting Rich Results
Figure out why structured data is not generating rich results with these troubleshooting tips from Google.

SEO: Google: Fine if 30-40% of URLs in Search Console Are 404s
404 errors are a normal part of web crawling, Google says, and may even amount to 40% of a site’s URLs in Search Console.

SEO: Google On Expected Impact of Core Web Vitals Update
Google explains what to expect when Core Web Vitals become a ranking signal

SEO: Mueller Discusses Site Traffic and Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals scores are calculated from actual traffic. Google answers if site traffic influences the scoring

SEO: Google Says Word Count Not a Quality Factor
John Mueller affirmed that the number of words in an article is not a quality factor that Google considers.

SEO: Google: URL Structure Matters For International Sites & Adult Content
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that the place where your URL structure matters most is likely with international websites and sites that have sections of adult oriented content. It will help Google figure out the site better and know how to segment or filter elements if you have the proper URL structure.

SEO: Pass Google PageRank To Mailto Or Telephone Links – Nah
John Muller said that Google only follows links between canonical URLs and in mailto and tel links, there is no real canonical set.

SEO: Google Tests Playing Videos As Overlays In Search
Google Search for many queries and search result pages shows a video box that takes searchers to videos mostly on YouTube but other platforms as well. Now, Google is testing playing those videos directly in the search results page and not taking you to YouTube.com or the site the video is hosted on.

SEO: Google Audio Search – Will it Ever Be Possible?
Google offers details on early tests being done to potentially make audio search possible in the future.

SEO: Google: The Page Experience Update Won’t Be A Massive Change To Start
Google’s Danny Sullivan said to start, when the Page Experience Update rolls out, it won’t be a massive change. It might grow in terms of importance over the years. But to start, Danny said “it shouldn’t be the case that overnight, we flip some type of switch and there’s a massive change.”

SEO: Google Adjusted Its Search Algorithm Due To SEO Gaming Four Or Five Times In 10 Years
Gary Illyess answered how many times Google changed its search algorithm due to SEOs gaming the system. Gary said in the past ten years, he thinks it was about four or five times, that he can remember.

SEO: Google Search may be showing featured snippets less often
Starting around February 18, 2021, Google seems to be showing fewer featured snippet results in the search results page. Most, if not all, of the tools that track the Google search results, are showing significant declines in featured snippets showing up.

Related Articles:

• Google Showing Fewer Featured Snippets Since February 19th

SEO: Firefox Launches Total Cookie Protection
Mozilla’s latest release allows even stricter blocking of cookies. This is the latest move in its continued fight to protect user data.

SEO: Google: Title Tags Longer Than What Is Displayed Has SEO Benefit
Gary Illyes from Google said in last night’s Google Central Live event that there is a benefit, I assume an SEO benefit, to having title tags longer than what is displayed in the search. He later added that you should keep the title tag “precise” to the topic of the page and do not worry how long it is or if it is too long.

SEO: Google Lets Agencies Dismiss Some Partner Program Recommendations
Google said partners have the flexibility to apply or dismiss performance recommendations based on your own assessment in order to meet a minimum optimisation score of 70%.

SEO: Google Won’t Talk About Spam Prevention For Page Experience Update
Malte Ubl, a Technically a Software Engineer at Google, said he won’t be talking about any efforts around abuse and spam prevention for the upcoming Google Page Experience update. Specifically how some may try to fake the Chrome User Experience Report (CRUX) data for better or worse to manipulate rankings of their own site or competitors.

SEO: Google: There Is No SEO Reason To Make Bloated Sites
John Mueller from Google said on that there is no SEO reason for making such terrible & bloated sites.

Paid: New validation for line items in Display & Video 360 API
Beginning in May 2021, the Display & Video 360 API will start enforcing new validation when creating or updating line item resources.

Paid: How to identify your products for Google
Google has published a list of best practices to help ensure that its search engine understands the products that are being referenced. The list contains an explanation of how Google identifies products, as well as tips for manufacturers, retailers and publishers.

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• Google On The Importance Of GTINs For Products In Search

Paid: Providing better product information for shoppers
Google provide guidelines for manufacturers, retailers, and publishers on how to ensure that Google understands the products they are selling or referencing.

Paid: Google set to deprecate Showcase Shopping ads on April 1
Google will stop serving Showcase Shopping ads and remove Showcase Shopping ad groups beginning on April 1, the company stated in an email to advertisers sent on February 23. After April 1, previous Showcase Shopping ad layouts will become part of Product Shopping ad groups. Advertisers will retain access to performance data for removed ads and ad groups in their account reports.

Related Articles:

• Google To Discontinue Showcase Shopping Ads On April 1st

Paid: Google Ads Console Is Down & We’re Back
Google Ads is currently not loading for advertisers now. If you try to login to ads.google.com you will be presented with a 502 server error.

Paid: Advertisers have until February 2022 to adjust to Google’s new Partner Program requirements
In an email to Google Partner Program members around the world, Google announced changes to the Program structure and badge criteria. The changes were initially slated to take place June 2020, but due to the pandemic will now go into effect beginning in February 2022. This means Partners will have a year to meet the new Program requirements.

Content: Google: Mixed Content Warnings Won’t Remove Your Site From Search
Google’s John Mueller said that having mixed content on your site and getting mixed content warnings won’t result in your site being removed from Google Search.

Social: Twitter Lets Users Monetize Tweets With ‘Super Follow’
Twitter announces an upcoming paid feature, Super Follow, which gives users the ability to monetise their content.

Social: Snapchat Now Reaches 70% of 13 to 24 Year Olds
Snapchat reveals that it reaches 70% of 13 to 24 year olds, and 80% of its reach is above 18 years old.

Social: Twitter’s Top 6 Trends to Help Brands Stay Ahead
Twitter lists the top 6 trends brands need to be familiar to stay ahead of what’s happening on the platform.

Social: Snapchat Reports Increase in Mobile Video Viewing
Snapchat is reporting a significant increase in the consumption of mobile video content among millennials and Gen Z.

Social: LinkedIn Pages Updated With New Features
LinkedIn is launching new features for Pages to help businesses generate more leads and keep employees engaged.

Local: Yandex Accused of Anti-competitive Practices in Russia
Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) issued a warning to Yandex to cease favouring their own sites at the expense of competitors

SEO: WordPress 5.6.2 Update is Largely Successful
WordPress 5.6.2 update safely rolls out with a fix for a bug introduced by the previous update. Publishers are encouraged to update.

SEO: Google Talks About Its Serving Index & Index Shards
In the latest episode of the Search Off The Record podcast with Googlers John Mueller, Gary Illyes, Martin Splitt and this week’s special guest Mariya Moeva – they spoke about Google’s SiteKit and then also about the serving index. Gary gave a summary of how Google’s serving index works.

SEO: Google: Total Number Of Links Is Completely Irrelevant For SEO
John Mueller said that the number of links is “completely irrelevant” and that Google weighs different links differently. He said one link can be way more valuable than thousands of links because Google can ignore links.

SEO: Google: No Search Penalty For Too Many Redirects
Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Google Search does not have a penalty for having too many redirects.

SEO: Google Search Console adds ‘associations’ so you can link with other Google accounts
Google announced a new feature in Search Console named “associations.” Associations lets you connect your Search Console account with other Google accounts, such as YouTube, Google Analytics, Android apps and much more.

Related Articles:

• Google Search Console Updated With New Associations Page
  
  
• New Association functionality added to Search Console
  
  
• Google Search Console Association Controls Updated

SEO: Google: Focus Less On Individual Pages & More On Category Pages
Google told one site owner, this is specific advice to one specific site owner and not meant to be a generalisation for all sites, that he should not focus on his individual pages but focus more on the category level pages.

SEO: Google Testing Keyword Tags Or Labels In Snippets Again
Google Search snippet test where Google is showing keywords labels or tags above the description and below the title and URL.

SEO: Possible Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool Bug With HTTP/2?
Google may have a bug with the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console specific to websites on HTTP/2. The tool shows a malformed response when it is run on the HTTP/2 server.

SEO: Google Search Console Changes To Web Story Performance Report
Google has made a change to its performance report around reporting on your Web Stories. This change may lead to seeing more impressions and clicks from Google Discover to your web stories.

SEO: WordPress: Bugs Detected in Ninja Forms Plugin, 1M Sites Affected
Four major bugs in the Ninja Forms plugin for WordPress have been detected. Immediate update is recommended.

SEO: Google on SEO Best Practices for News Sites & Short Articles
Google’s John Mueller offers advice for news sites that publish short articles.

SEO: Google’s John Mueller: Total Number of Backlinks Doesn’t Matter
The total number of links pointing to a website is irrelevant to Google, says Search Advocate John Mueller.

SEO: Google Discover Does Not Display All Web Stories
Google Discover has a dedicated web stories carousel, but Search Advocate John Mueller says not all web stories get shown.

SEO: Google May Treat Press Releases Different From Other Content
Google’s John Mueller says press releases may be treated different from other types of content in search results.

SEO: Google Discusses Natural Backlinks
Google’s John Mueller discusses the mindset for achieving natural backlinks

SEO: Google May Provide Method To Block Content From Google Discover
Danny Sullivan from Google said Google is “looking at” providing a mechanism to block pages or subsections of your site from being displayed in Google Discover.

SEO: Google May Discover URLs In Form Action Attributes & Text Files
Google’s John Mueller said Google may discover and index URLs it finds in form action attributes, just like it does when it finds URLs in simple text files. Again, these are not normal HTML hyperlinks but URLs listed in files.

SEO: Google’s Mueller on Migrating to a Previously Parked Domain
Google’s John Mueller offered feedback on an indexing issue specific to changing to a domain that was previously parked.

SEO: Google Hosts Search Central Live, A Free Event on February 24
Google Hosts Search Central Live, A Free Event on February 24

SEO: Google Search Console Changes Core Web Vitals Reporting
Google is making a slight change to how Core Web Vitals are measured and reported on in Search Console.

SEO: Google Passage Based Ranking Causing Minimal Impact So Far
Google’s Danny Sullivan posted on Twitter after I published this story “It finished rolling out on this past Monday, Feb. 15. It is fully rolled out now.

SEO: Google Can Process JavaScript Redirects But Be Concerned About Other Search Engines
Google’s Gary Illyes said that Google Search can process JavaScript redirects but Google still does not recommend using JavaScript redirects because other search engines might not pick up on it.

SEO: Google Search Console Core Web Vitals Boundaries Changed On February 17th
Google made a small change to how it plots the core web vitals data in Google Search Console. The change goes into effect on February 17, 2021 and using less than as a boundary, Google is using less than or equal to.

Related Articles:

• Google updated metric boundaries for core web vitals in Search Console

SEO: Google: WhoisGuard Does Not Impact SEO & Rankings
Google’s John Mueller said on Reddit “no” WhoisGuard, the NameCheap domain privacy setting, does not impact your SEO or rankings on Google. Google does not care if you use domain privacy settings or not when you register your domain name.

SEO: Google Image Search Tests Explore More Compass Icon
Google Image Search seems to be testing a compass icon in the image search results that trigger a search refinement feature. When you click on it, it takes you to a section to “explore more” images by showing you related searches.

SEO: Wix vs WordPress? Mueller Says Solve Content Issues
Google’s John Mueller suggested content issues are important for small businesses to solve in a discussion of Wix versus WordPress for local SEO

SEO: Google: No SEO Benefit to Audio Versions of Text Posts
Providing an audio recording of a text-based web page does not improve SEO, says Google’s John Mueller.

SEO: Google Search Tests Bubble Header Links Sticking To Top
Looks like Google is testing having those sub-navigation links in search, in the bubble format, stick to the top of the search results as you scroll down. We kind of saw this without the bubble header format in December but here it is with the bubbles.

SEO: WordPress Boots Pirated Themes and Plugins
WordPress issued a statement that pirated themes and plugins are prohibited from being distributed from the official repositories

Paid: Google brings Display ads to attribution reports as an open beta
Google has added Display ads to its Google Ads attribution reporting as an open beta, the company announced Thursday.

Paid: Responsive search ads now the default in Google Ads
Google announced that RSAs will officially become the default ad type for Search campaigns in Google Ads, though expanded text ads can still be created.

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• Responsive Search Ads Are Now Default Type for Google Ads
  
  
• Google Ads Responsive Search Ads The New Default Ad Type

Paid: Google to transition to parallel tracking for Video ads by April 30
Google announced that the deadline to adopt parallel tracking for Video ad campaigns is April 30.

Social: LinkedIn Pages Updated With New Features
LinkedIn is launching new features for Pages to help businesses generate more leads and keep employees engaged.

Social: Twitter’s Top 6 Trends to Help Brands Stay Ahead
Twitter lists the top 6 trends brands need to be familiar to stay ahead of what’s happening on the platform.

Social: LinkedIn is Reportedly Creating a Service For Hiring Freelancers
LinkedIn is said to be working on a new service where users can search for and hire freelancers.

Social: YouTube Rolls Out New Video Comparison Tools for Creators
YouTube is adding new tools that will allow creators to compare the performance of their videos over time.

Social: YouTube is Adding New Ways For Creators to Make Money
YouTube announces plans to introduce new monetisation opportunities for creators in the near future.

Social: Facebook Blocks Australian News
Australian news organisations had their posts removed from Facebook in a retaliatory action that also affected unintended pages.

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• Google To Facebook: Australian Publishers Choose To Appear In Google Search
  
  
• Facebook unfriends Australia and Maryland passes ad tax; Monday’s daily brief
  
  
• Facebook Wins Standoff With Australian Government
  
  
• Facebook Wins Standoff With Australian Government

Social: YouTube Shorts Launching in USA in March
YouTube confirms its short-form video format, Shorts, is launching in USA in March 2021.

Social: YouTube Update: See Other Channels Your Audience Watches
An update to YouTube Analytics allows creators to see what other channels their audience watches.

Local: Yelp’s Waitlist, analytics and POS updates aim to address shifting consumer preferences
Yelp has expanded its Waitlist feature to support takeout diners, the company announced Tuesday. The announcement also includes enhanced analytics for multi-location restaurants, and a new Point of Sales (POS) integration and guest profiles that support “personalised and targeted marketing opportunities.”

Local: Google Battles Fraudsters and Vandals as Maps Reaches 970 Million Submissions
Google specifies how they combat content fraud and vandalism, while celebrating the 20 million genuine submissions made every day.

Related Articles:

• Google Maps Spam Efforts Lead To Removal Of 55M Reviews & 3M Business Profiles

Local: Google Local Browse Restaurants By Filters
Google is is showing a browse by filter that lets you filter down your restaurant selections by type.

Mobile: Google Mobile-First Indexing Deadline Is Around March 2021
Google’s revised mobile-first indexing deadline is coming up in the next several weeks. Google said it is going 100% into mobile-first indexing. Google moved the deadline from September 2020 to March 2021.

Mobile: Google Tests Displaying Auto Suggestions On Scroll Up
Google is testing displaying and popping up the auto-suggestions auto complete search terms in the search bar when you scroll back up towards the top of the search results.