SEO Wash-up Monday 14th February 22

Google Update

Google Maps new feature called ‘Busy Area’ Now Live – A new feature called ‘busy area’ has been rolled out by Google. They have started to roll this out over the past couple of months. When you are using the Google Maps app, Google will show you if an area is busy by labelling it “busy area” with a pulsating indicator.

The search giant mentions that this is a good way to avoid crowds. So whether you’re heading to your hometown or exploring a new city, you can use Area Busyness, a new feature that combines live busyness trends to help you instantly spot when a neighbourhood or part of town is near or at its busiest.

You can get more information by tapping on a neighbourhood to see how busy it is at different times of day, along with the restaurants, shops and recreational places (like a museum) within it, so you can decide if you want to visit. Area Busyness starts rolling out globally on Android and iOS, in time for this holiday season.

Google Search is testing an empty design search box called ‘Edge to Edge’ – Google seems to be testing a more empty style for its search bar. The search bar has no actual box to enter your query after your query is in the box. It also changes some of the icons to grey without colour. Google has confirmed this test and called it the edge to edge user interface.

Google Analytics 4 now supports Google search console data – The search giant has mentioned that Google Analytics 4 now supports data from Google search console. Although this was something Google had supported before with the original Google Analytics back in 2011, now Google has brought over support for with the new GA4. In order to enable, it will be under the fairly new Google Search Console associations controls where you can associate your Google Analytics property with your Search Console property to see Google Analytics data in Search Console Insights, as well as Search Console data in Google Analytics.

Google Ads has added new icons & workspace filter – Google Ads has rolled out new icons and a workspace filter to some accounts and advertisers are noticing it. There has been chatter about it on social media between users the other day. The Workspace layout is from a month or so ago, but users have mention that the new icons work better with the new Workspace filters. There is minor UI changes but for advertisers who spend 8 hours per day in this interface, they might find the change distracting and maybe even refreshing.

Bing

Bing shopping buy now has integrated with Shopify & Ethical Shopping – Microsoft Bing mentioned that it launched its Shopify integration by allowing a buy now from Bing Shopping and Bing Search to the Shopify site it is hosted on. Furthermore, a few weeks back it launched a new Ethical Shopping hub in United Kingdom, which should expand beyond the UK.

Although Microsoft Bing has announce a partnership with Shopify already, but now it is live where if you click Buy now, it will bypass the steps and immediately add the product and your experience to the checkout flow of the shopping cart on that site. Shopify is integrated into the Shopping vertical on Microsoft Bing as well, and when you search for products, you will find the wide selection, as well as “Buy now” button to easily complete your shopping.

Bing has also mentioned “shopping with a purpose,” with a Bing Ethical Shopping hub, currently accessible in the United Kingdom only. This provides consumers and searchers with categories like eco-friendly, upcycled, or fair-trade fashion. Shoppers can also select to browse by ethical fashion brands or products, trending, and featured items, or even grab the latest headlines about informed fashion choices and other planet-friendly news topics, all on one convenient page.