Were You a Victim of Google’s February Fiasco?

February 2024 has not only been a leap month, it’s been a month of bugs and hiccups for Google Search and Google Ads. Here's a recap of some noteworthy occurrences:

• Indexing Woes: Google Search was plagued with indexing problems, causing disruptions for several days.
• Local Results Vanishing Act: Many users reported the absence of local pack results in their searches.
• Missing Local Results Button: Google removed the option to view more local results from search queries.
• Featured Snippets MIA: Featured snippets mysteriously disappeared from search results.
• European Search Hijacking: A bug affected European searches, redirecting users to unintended destinations like TripAdvisor, Booking, and Hotel.com.
• Recipe Carousel Drop: The Google Search Recipe Carousel excluded numerous recipe sites unexpectedly.
• Referral Spam Alert: Google Analytics users faced an influx of referral spam from Poland, prompting concerns.

While bugs like these aren’t common, having so many issues in such a short space of time shows that the online world can be unsteady and it’s always important to keep an eye on things so you can react quickly should something like these hiccups affect your site.

Matt Cayless

Director

www.bubblegumsearch.com