This day in search marketing history: February 14

Google Webmaster Tools comes out of beta

In 2007, Google Webmaster Tools officially came out of beta.

Launched in June 2005 as Google Sitemaps, its expansion led to a on Aug. 4, 2006.

Google also revealed that Webmaster Central had more than a million users.

Read all about it in .

Eventually, , on May 20, 2015.

Also on this day

2022: This seemed to be a widespread reporting issue.

2022: The feature was designed to drive incremental ad revenue while encouraging more engagement from visitors.

2022: This expansion would increase the platform’s reach by 41 million customers.

2019: Controversial ‘link tax’ and content filtering provisions were part of the final language of the Directive.

2018: The new spec was available through the Gmail Developer Preview, with support in Gmail slated for later that year.

2017: People also ask got more frequent and prominent placement in Google.

2014: Search Engine Land would only write about it if there was some exceptional news value.

2014: A look at the evolution of weather-related searches and how Google handled them.

2014: The document contained extensive examples of how search results would look in Europe under the new agreement.

2014: The update gave users the option to override changes without having to review the conflicts first.

2014: The Bing search folks shared a few screenshots showing a 3D, three-panel search display that they came up with for search circa 2028.

2014: The game worked like “Donkey Kong,” but replaced the objects based off of Google ranking signals.

2014: The latest images showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.

2013: Google’s Matt Cutts answers “How many types of messages does the webspam team send to Webmaster Tools?”

2013: Google Now added movie ratings from Rotten Tomatoes and movie passes from Fandango.

2013: A comedy about what it was like to work at Google as interns (Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson).

2012: Study was based on 1,000 unique one-word searches created by using a random noun generator on Google UK and conducted using Google Chrome on Incognito mode.

2012: Google said they “incorporate text from ads in your account that are related to your sitelinks,” to make up the Enhanced Sitelinks.

2012: Apparently it was business as usual.

2012: Google said it wasn’t manually blocking Scroogle but they had automated systems in place that “deter scraping or excessive queries to Google.”

2011: While Personal Blocklist was designed to allow individuals to build up their own unique blocklists, Google said it could use the data to influence the search results for others.

2011: Two updates for Google Search and Image Search.

2011: For most people, search quality had been declining, results were less personal, reflecting more of a standardized Google-centric view than ever before.

2011: It used Google Maps and enabled you to send an email card to a spouse/partner/lover/friend.

2011: Facebook, far and away, was the leader in total engagement with more than 3X the mobile time spent on Google.

2011: It helped create a perception that there were three mobile platforms that mattered and Windows was one of them.

2011: “It needs to be water. It’s instantly useful. It’s simple. I don’t have to re-learn how to use water. It’s always present,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

2011: The set of free developer tools was intended to challenge Google Maps and Places.

2009: MapQuest’s January monthly unique visitors were 41.5 million and Google’s were 42.2 million.

2008: Advertisers paid once on a CPC basis where any click counted. So if a user clicked on the URL link that counted as a click or if a user clicked to play the video that also counted as a click.

2008: One website saw a 87% decrease in traffic for the search term “car insurance”]” due to a Google penalty.

2008: Who was in and out. Related coverage:

2008: He said Yahoo had a “unique combination of strengths,” including a strong brand and being a leader in display advertising, search advertising, mobile and online video.

2008: 43% of internet users have been frustrated by the lack of information they encounter while using the internet to find out about or buy goods or services.

2008: The two firms would share revenue from clicks or leads generated from AOL distribution.

2008: More search, tools and content, plus a marketplace.

2007: The most significant change in the algorithm: they would better handle keywords that had little data.

2007: Gmail restrictions were dropped.

2007: Google News came under far more criticism and attention than its apparent usage as a news resource.

2007: Google Search got an A-.

2007: Enabled you to search for Keyhole Markup Language.

2007: VSearch would be ad supported. 

From Search Marketing Expo ()

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.

< | | February 15 >