This day in search marketing history: March 16

Google Univeral Analytics: The beginning of the end

In 2022, Google announced its plan to on July 1, 2023. (That’s 106 days from today.)

Previously processed data in Universal Analytics will be stored for at least six months after the deprecation date.

Why was Google making the switch to Google Analytics 4? Because it didn’t rely on cookies and used an event-based data model for measurement.

• “Universal Analytics was built for a generation of online measurement that was anchored in the desktop web, independent sessions and more easily observable data from cookies. This measurement methodology is quickly becoming obsolete.”

Google also announced that Universal Analytics 360 properties would stop processing hits on Oct. 1, 2023. But on Oct. 27, 2022, Google  it was delaying that sunset date to July 1, 2024.

Also on this day

2022: Google confirmed there was an issue with some reviews not posting and those reviews would be processed by the end of the week.

2022: The company was also adding reporting capabilities, support for hotel rates in Google Business Profiles and rolling out Local Posts to hotels.

2022: With this expansion, the format could also display in the Microsoft Audience Network, the Microsoft Autos Marketplace and the Windows search bar.

2021: Previously, there was no real way to see the status of reviews you submitted for a takedown in an organized fashion 

2020: “It’s surprising how fast things have changed in just a couple of days.”

2020: Google said it would make it possible for businesses to easily mark themselves as ‘temporarily closed’ using Google My Business.

2020: ‘Coronavirus’ results pages became ad-free resource hubs on Bing, Google and other search engines.

2020: Wright said it’s often easier to reach out to those who are upset with you versus trying to outrank them.

2018: 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.

2017: Some other display ads could be converted automatically to the new format when users were nearby.

2017: Appeared to be the first-ever commercialization of Google’s home assistant product.

2016: Google said mobile-friendly sites would “not be impacted by this update.”

2016: DuckDuckGo’s feature let users choose from Apple, Bing, Here, OpenStreetMap or Google Maps to get directions.

2015: Google announced they were releasing a new “ranking adjustment” to their doorway page classifier to better handle doorway pages in the search results.

2015: This would allow any app developer or publisher to integrate with the service.

2015: Search results included a complete men’s college basketball tournament bracket, along with Bing’s game-by-game predictions.

2012: Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed.”

2012: Google had lifted the 60-day paid link penalty Google Chrome was given the first week of January.

2012: “I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either.”

2012: The re-introduction of Yahoo RAIS appeared to be Microsoft’s answer to Google’s sitelinks extensions and product listing ads.

2012: 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.

2011: Google’s Matt Cutts and Bing’s Sasi Parthasarathy spoke about whether they had whitelists.

2011: Originally filed in October 2004, the patent was for a system that used social connections and clicks within the network to determine search-ranking relevance.

2011: Google and Yahoo modestly lost share, AOL and Ask were flat, Bing gained.

2011: When it came to raw complaint searches, nothing beat the auto industry.

2010: Google’s mobile traffic growth had been 5X over the past two years.

2010: The US PTO refused to let Google register the mark on the basis of potential confusion with a pre-existing trademark from a telecom company that provided voice and data services.

2010: Bing’s market share in February was 12.5%, an all-time high that continued Bing’s overall growth since it launched in 2009. 

2010: Ask said they moved to a new system named PureLeads.

2010: Spoiler alert: Yes.

2009: Google’s announcement seemed to indicate that the ads would always show beneath the story.

2009: You would find the ads at the top of the image results when you conducted searches for pictures in Picasa’s web albums.

2009: New features included enhanced geotargeting, ad scheduling, demographic targeting, and added bid adjustments based on those targeting features.

2009: US internet users appeared uncomfortable with online tracking and targeting at a time when publishers and search engines were more aggressively embracing it.

2009: While the highest frequency users were on smartphones, comScore said that 70% of the traffic was coming from so-called feature phones (conventional cellphones).

2007: Isabel Aguilera, Google’s chief executive in Spain and Portugal, confirmed that there was a Google phone in the works.

2007: Trendalyzer converted “boring numbers into enjoyable interactive animations.” Adscape was an in-game advertising company.

2007: He mocked Google’s personal time concept.

2007: It was a “moment of acceleration” and intensifying competition for mobile search and marketing.

2007: Gary was commonly referred to as the man who replaced Jeeves the butler.

2007: Travelocity found that it was a waste to buy non-branded search terms.

2007: Shopping search engine aggregated product reviews from Amazon, but presented product sentiment in a highly visual way using heatmaps.

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.

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