Search engines change all the time – often more than daily – and it can be challenging to keep up with all the changes and the noise that goes with it. What do the changes mean? How will it affect you? Our new monthly Search Summary pieces aim to help answer those questions and more!

Each month, Yoghurt Digital will be summarising the most significant changes in the world of search. Whilst February didn’t see a whole lot of action with regards to major algorithm or UX changes, there were some new features added to Google Search Console and a lot of chatter with the big media players and Australian politics.

New Features in Google

Search Console now includes Chrome data

Google announced that the “Discover” report in Google Search Console will now include data from users using Google Chrome. It previously only used data from the Google App on Android and iOS devices, so is a welcome addition and we’re looking forward to the reports as the update rolls out.

New Google Discover Screenshot
New Google Discover Screenshot

New Association functionality added to Google Search Console

There’s now an “Association” page within the settings menu that allows you to connect other Google Services such as YouTube or Google Analytics.

It’s a welcome change, as previously these integrations were only visible on the apps GSC was connected to. Now we can see them all in GSC – neat!

New Google Search Console Associations Screenshot
New Google Search Console Associations Screenshot

Top TipYou can keep up to date with similar Google updates via their newly consolidated Google Search Central Blog

Google News

Financial performance

It seems like COVID has only helped the juggernaut as Google posted significant increases in their business during Q4 for the fiscal 2020 year, with revenue increasing by 23% YoY to $56.9B 😲

You can read more on the finstats via TechMeme here.

Threatening to pull out of the Australian Market

The News Media Bargaining Code has been all over the news for what feels like the majority of 2021. Google responded with a public video and took over search results to ensure everyone saw it.

It angered politicians, induced fear into the Australian public, made world headlines and allowed space for many of the competition to put their hands up and tell everyone it was going to be OK.

At the time of writing, the media bargaining code has now passed in Parliament (more detail on this to come).

That’s all for this month! Hope you found the above points useful if not interesting and if you have any further questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment or reach out. Until next time!

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