SEO Wash-up Monday 18th February

Google Updates

Google image search add recently viewed section – The Search giant has added a feature to see recently viewed images that are related to the image you are currently looking at on Google Image search results.

Google search console notifications to remove Google+ – Google has sent out notifications through its search console reminding websites that have added Google+ buttons and other integrations, will need to remove them by March. As they are killing off Google+ the user version in the coming months so they want the Google+ buttons off the web in advance.

Google local testing a new get in line button – Google is testing a button in the local panel for “get in line”. It is a waitlist feature that seems to be powered by DineTime for restaurants to enable people to put themselves on a waitlist to be seated for a table.

Business owners can reply to reviews on Google maps desktop – Google has mentioned in Google my business help forums that owners of a business can now reply to reviews directly using Google Maps on desktop. Whereas before you could only do it via Google My Business page or app and in some other forms.

With this, now you can do it right from Google Maps on desktop that helps you with tools to get feedback from customers. When you are replying directly from Google Maps, it lets you manage your reviews without having to download the Google My Business app or open its homepage.

Google auto complete suggestions design change – Google auto complete on search could be testing a design change. As you type longer queries, instead of the suggestions showing in full length below, it shows just the upcoming words.

Google rolls out shopping product cards buttons on desktop search – It seems that Google is testing showing product cards within the Google Shopping panel on desktop now.

Google tests favicons for top stories – We all know that Google likes testing new things for favicons as they do it all the time. But now, Google is testing favicons in the top stories carousel. You can see it on your pc or Mac using Chrome in Incognito mode.

Google Flights Search Results Box Drops – When it comes to holidays or just flight related queries for travel, you would see a search box at the top showing the vertical search feature from Google Flights. Now it seems the number of times that box shows up has significantly dropped. You may have realised that they are not showing up as much and may think if this is a bug or a feature. But it is actually that it went from showing up for 0.77% of the queries they track down to 0.28% of queries.