This day in search marketing history: January 11

The mobile intrusive interstitials penalty

In 2017, Google started rolling out the mobile intrusive interstitials penalty.

In August 2016, Google announced plans to lower the rankings of pages “where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from the mobile search results” – and that crackdown would begin on Jan. 10, 2017.

Why did Google do this? They believed this type of ad was “problematic” on mobile devices with smaller screens.

Google explained which types of interstitials were going to be problematic, including:

Showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results or while they are looking through the page.

Displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.

Using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold.

Read all about it in: Google confirms rolling out the mobile intrusive interstitials penalty yesterday.

Also on this day

Google’s page experience update coming to desktop next month

2022: This was just a reminder about an update that wasn’t expected to be big.

Microsoft Advertising Shopping campaigns reporting enhancements

2022: Plus, Microsoft Audience Network, Similar audiences and in-market audiences expanded.

Google updates the Search Console coverage report

2021: The updated report gave specific categories and labels for errors and responses.

Facebook blocks Trump for remainder of term while Twitter sets permanent ban

2021: Numerous advertisers had paused their social media campaigns over the events at the Capitol.

Video: Phillip Thune on FindWhat competing with GoTo, Overture, Yahoo and Google Ads

2021: In this installment of Barry Schwartz’s vlog series, he chats with Thune about the early days in the search industry, his role in running Textbroker and more.

Sitelinks tip: Set your sitelink descriptions or Google, Bing Ads can do it dynamically

2019: Adverisers who hadn’t set up manual sitelink descriptions in non-brand campaigns probably wouldn’t have liked what they saw.

Smart speaker sales grew 103% last year

2019: The virtual assistant devices became the fastest-selling consumer technology, dramatically outpacing wearables and VR.

What Time Is The Super Bowl? Google & Bing Are Confused

2016: The information showing was for last year, including listing the teams for last year.

Alice Paul Google Doodle Marks 131st Birthday Of The American Suffragist & ERA Activist

2016: The Google Doodle honored Alice Paul, the American suffragist who played an integral role in getting the 19th Amendment passed, giving women the right to vote, and was the original force behind the Equal Rights Amendment.

Analyst: Mobile Continues To Take Share From Desktop Search

2013: Overall query volume appeared to be declining as mobile devices cannibalized traffic.

Why Asking StumbleUpon To Remove Your Links Is Dumb

2013: StumbleUpon was getting regular requests each week from people asking for it to remove links to their sites. Why? They were worried that being linked to by a popular and long-standing social media sharing site was somehow hurting them with Google.

Yahoo Brings Back Flickr/Creative Commons Filtering To Image Search

2013: An image search feature that was often used by bloggers and other content producers returned – and it expanded to image searches on mobile devices.

Search In Pics: Panda & Penguin Speakers, R2D2 Android & Google Workshop

2013: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

Real-Life Examples Of How Google’s “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy

2012: A closer look at the changes, including how they turn Google+ into an essential social network for any search marketer.

Google “Search Plus” Impact on Local: Limited So Far

2012: Based on an unscientific query survey, the impact seemed to be minor.

Reports: Mobile Search Impressions Explode, CTRs Beat PC

2012: Mobile [paid] search ad spend was up 269% YoY and impressions were up 317%.

Google Flight Search Expands, Now Showing More Routes

2012: Google remained tightlipped about exact numbers, but a spokesperson confirmed that “since launch we’ve more than doubled the number of domestic (i.e., U.S.) routes available in the feature.”

Google Logo For Nicolas Steno: Father Of Modern Geology

2012: The logo symbolized the study of the earth, from the ocean to the mountain tops.

Tim Mayer: Search Vet & Ex-Yahoo Lands At Trada

2011: Mayer joined the crowdsourced SEM marketplace as its Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing sales, marketing, product development and operations.

Google Eases Management of Negative Keywords, Changes AdWords Display

2011: Google changed its AdWords interface to allow marketers to use a single negative keyword list across multiple campaigns.

New AdWords Tool Introduced For Better Understanding Of Mobile Searchers

2011: With mobile searches growing by leaps and bounds, Google introduced an option on its keyword tool that let marketers find keyword suggestions for mobile devices.

Yahoo-Bing Gaining On Google In Some Paid Search Metrics: Report

2011: The transition led to small drops in click share and spend share, and a larger drop in overall paid search ad impressions for Yahoo-Bing. But, the flip side of that was a gain in revenue-per-click (RPC).

Google Pushes Hotpot Activity To Maps’ Home Page

2011: Anyone logged into a Google account would see recent activity from their Hotpot friends in the left-side window.

Off The Radar: Why Airlines On Travel Search Engines Are Going Missing

2011: It was a standoff between online travel agencies and airlines.

Foursquare Improves, Expands Information For Businesses

2011: Foursquare went after local businesses and major brands with an improved and expanded content section that explained how they could take advantage of Foursquare’s platform.

Google Launches A Worldwide Science Fair For Teens

2011: Google itself was basically a science project developed by its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, way back when.

German Govt. Says Google Becoming ‘Giant Monopoly’

2010: Germany’s justice minister threatened government action if Google didn’t become more transparent.

Yahoo Beefing Up Social Scientist Staffing In Yahoo Labs

2010: The company was beefing up Yahoo Labs, hiring a range of social scientists and academics and doing new research

The End of Yahoo Shopping? Company Substantially Outsourcing To PriceGrabber

2010: Merchant listings would now come from PriceGrabber and ecommerce sellers would only be able to get into Yahoo Shopping via PriceGrabber or Yahoo Search (Bing).

Google News Fast Flip Featured Topless Playboy Model

2010: Google News marked the article in the “most viewed” section of Fast Flip – go figure!

Bing Flashes Their Basketball Skills With NBA Results

2010: Bing’s results for NBA got “smarter”.

The Big List: 2010 Marketing Predictions & Resolutions

2010: Links to so many articles offering predictions and resolutions for 2010.

Get A Free Link From Wired

2009: But only until Wired put a robots.txt block on links coming out of the semi-Wikipedia challenger.

Google Launches Google Checkout Trends

2009: Google Checkout Trends was a flavor of Google Trends, but limited the data to that collected from Google Checkout merchants.

Yahoo Directory Places Images On Sponsored Ads

2009: The images appeared on the left side of each sponsored result within the directory pages.

The New Yorker On Google: Avoiding Regulation, Arrogance

2009: How Google’s growth frightened those with vested interests (Viacom, Microsoft), as well as consumer and privacy advocates.

Isabel Aguilera, CEO of Google Spain & Portugal, Leaving

2009: She became Google Spain’s CEO on March 1, 2006.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg In the Hot Seat In Upcoming “60 Minutes” Interview

2009: Where he would be asked about the Beacon controversy and the challenge of leveraging the social graph for the benefit of advertisers.

Yahoo Moves Metasearch Engine FareChase To Travel Homepage

2009: Attributed to the nearly $200 million acquisition of SideStep by competitor Kayak

Microsoft Business Division Head Raikes Retiring

2009: He would be succeeded in that same role by Juniper Networks’ COO Stephen Elop.

Search in Pictures: Jeremy Zawodny Weds, Google’s Mascot, Yahoo’s Clothing Line

2009: The latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

New AOL Finance Gains Market Share To Become Top Site

2009: AOL’s new finance site passed Yahoo Finance and MSN Money to become the web’s top finance destination.

January 2007 Update On Google Indexing & Ranking Issues

2007: PageRank updates, supplemental listings, filetype command changes, lost home pages in country-specific results, an update on the disappearing sex blogs, concerns that CSS is being spidered to detect hidden text, duplicate content worries, the Minus 30 penalty and what to do if Google thinks you are a malware site.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

How to avoid a site migration disaster

Past contributions from Search Engine Land’s Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

These columns are a snapshot in time and have not been updated since publishing, unless noted. Opinions expressed in these articles are those of the author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

2022: Why server logs matter for SEO by Kaspar Szymanski

2021: How to use schema markup to make an impression in search by Martha van Berkel

2018: SEO trends and Google changes to expect in 2018 by Pratik Dholakiya

2017: Ad copy hack for your AdWords pathways by Jason Puckett

2016: 78% Of SEOs Believe That 2016 Is Going To Be A “Great” Year For Business by Myles Anderson

2016: How Much Did Countdown Ads Play Into Advertisers’ Strategies This Holiday Season? by Matt Umbro

2013: Analytics Matched Search Queries Vs. AdWords Keyword Details Report by Carrie Hill

2012: The New Era Of Display: 5 Reasons Search Marketers Should Care by Frost Prioleau

2012: My Search Rankings Are Great! But My Traffic Sucks! Now What? by Barry Bowman

2012: Four Things You Can Do With Inconclusive Split Tests by Brian Massey

2012: Google Fails To Trounce Bing (Again): The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine Revisited by Conrad Saam

2011: How To Develop Cross PPC Platform Strategies Using Negative Keywords by Matt Van Wagner