This day in search marketing history: March 4

Sheryl Sandberg named Facebook Chief Operating Officer

In 2008, Facebook announced Sheryl Sandberg as its new Chief Operating Officer.

At the time, Sandberg was Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations, responsible for online sales of its advertising and publishing products. Sandberg joined Google in 2001.

Sandberg would join Facebook on March 24, 2008 and be responsible for helping the company scale its operations and expand its presence globally.

Why the change?

“For me that is part of the excitement,” Sandberg said. “I’ve loved being part of the process of helping to build Google. The opportunity to help another young company to grow into a global leader is the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Sandberg would remain COO of Facebook, later Meta, for 14 years. She announced her departure in June 2022 and officially transitioned out of her COO role by August.

Read all about it in Facebook’s New Chief Operating Officer, Ex-Google VP, Sandberg.

Also on this day

Google launches new Google Analytics 4 home page

2022: Google said “the Home page surfaces information that’s relevant to you based on your behavior in Analytics.” 

Google and Bing halt all ad sales in Russia

2022: The platforms already had suspended ads from Russian state media. As the conflict in Ukraine intensified, they were stopping all ads from serving to Russia-based users.

Microsoft Advertising’s Ad Creator extracts site images for use in ads

2022: Ad Creator and its built-in photo editor could help advertisers that didn’t have access to a design team save time.

Google My Business report shows how people found your business

2021: You could now see device and platform breakdown in your Google My Business performance reports.

Google Ads mobile app adds custom and performance insights notifications

2021: The updates could help advertisers keep tabs on the metrics that are important to them and notify them of significant performance changes.

Microsoft Bing updates search results interface to make it more visually immersive

2021: Microsoft Bing updated recipe results, similar-looking items, expandable carousels, infographic panels and local answers design.

Most local SEOs making at least $60,000

2020: Half of those responding to a survey said they had been working in the industry for more than a decade and 11% had been working in local SEO for 20 years or more.

Video: Ginny Marvin, our Editor-in-Chief, on the Periodic Tables of PPC

2020: Marvin also discussed her career, PPC versus SEO, natural language in search and some controversial topics in Google Ads.

Google My Business boosts visibility of business offers in Google Posts

2019: Google allowed up to 10 unique offers in the local listing carousel.

Google Ads API now out of beta, v0 will sunset April 30

2019: The production-ready v1 of the Google Ads API was available and ready for use.  

Google lobs invective at EU Copyright Directive

2019: Google’s SVP of Global Affairs Kent Walker urged changes in language ahead of ratification.

Google Agrees To Complicated Worldwide “Right To Be Forgotten” Censorship Plan

2016: Google would ensure those within a country where a RTBF request was granted could not find censored content, regardless of what Google edition they used.

Google Posts is now experimenting with Business Cards in search results

2016: Experimental feature allowed local businesses to promote specific content, which could be shared directly from the “card carousel.”

Google Adds 19 Animal Sounds To Search

2016: Searching for [animal noises] would bring up a carousel of animals with a speaker icon next to each one to listen to the sounds/noises that specific animal makes.

Google’s Candidate Cards Being Tested For Businesses?

2016: A local business was spotted using the equivalent of Candidate Cards to add content directly into Google’s search results.

Search In Pics: Google AMP, SMX & Androidify Station

2016: 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.

How Google Made It A Little Harder To Reach Google.com From Outside The US

2015: Google said the change was meant to help local searchers, but did the Right To Be Forgotten play a role?

Google Tests Search Results Listings Without Descriptions

2015: Google tested how searchers would react to not seeing a snippet description in the search results.

Google Launches AdWords App For Android

2015: This was the first time Google had launched a native app for monitoring and managing AdWords campaigns.

YP Launches New Local Search Marketplace For National Advertisers

2015: YP built ypSearch Marketplace, a paid-search, bidded marketplace that tapped into the company’s 80 million monthly users.

Bing Saves, Search Bookmarking Feature, Now Public Beta

2014: The feature let searchers save URLs and searches to their personal Bing/Microsoft account, in order to build an index of their own saved searches.

New Video Shows Microsoft “Assistant” Cortana In Action

2014: Cortana was intended to help users discover and search for information as well as providing Google Now like personalization and “predictive search” capabilities.

Microsoft Says Goodbye To “Scroogled” Ad Campaign

2013: Microsoft’s “Scroogled” ad campaign, which attacked Google over paid inclusion in shopping and Gmail over privacy, was coming to an end.

Google Test: Auto-Completing Search Queries

2011: This auto-completion was happening on long-tail terms where Google Suggest had stopped giving suggestions.

PPC Data On “Farmer” Shows Traffic Quality Improvement

2011:  Revenue-per-click was showing a modest improvement.

Google Shows Your Latest Tweet As Search Snippet … In 10 Seconds

2011: Google was showing a user’s latest tweet as the snippet. It was even keeping links from the tweet active in the snippet.

Google Hotpot Places A Bet On Las Vegas

2011:  The company announced a local marketing campaign aimed at upping usage of Google Places and Hotpot. Google gave away 10,000 free Las Vegas Monorail tickets.

Google Releases First AdWords API Upgrade Of 2011

2011: Features included the ability to run reports across clients, better filtering, improved geo-targeting, and the ability to deploy and measure “experiments,” or A/B split testing.

Google, Microsoft Cooperate To Invalidate Broad Online Mapping Patent

2011: Google and Microsoft joined forces to fight a common foe: a small company in Texas that held a potentially sweeping mapping patent.

Bing Travel & Kayak Announce Partnership

2011: The two travel search engines announced a formal partnership to provide searchers with more comprehensive results.

Blekko Offers New Linkroll Widget & More Publisher Tools

2011: The Live Link Roll was a widget that displayed a site’s most recent inbound links “as they happen in realtime.”

CBS Buys Clicker Video Search Guide; Lanzone Becomes CBS Interactive Prez

2011: Clicker raised roughly $19 million from investors.

Big Trends (Hint: Mobile) Emerging In Online Advertising’s Next Frontiers

2011: The concept of “local” as a meaningful way to segment audiences was gradually becoming obsolete.

Google Wants Feedback On Buzz

2010: Google was asking for user feedback and ideas for its Google Buzz product, and had set up an ideas forum using Google Moderator.

How Wikipedia Turned PPC / Paid Search Into SEM

2010: How small changes snowballed into an entirely new meaning. Related: Does SEM = SEO + CPC Still Add Up?

Eye Tracking Study: Users Largely Blind To Real-Time Results In Search

2010: 73% had never heard of real-time results before participating this study.

Google Testing (Annoying) Expandable Ads

2009: Expandable ads are those annoying banners/graphics that expand and cover up the actual page content.

Google Spending Millions On Newspaper Ads To Notify Authors And Publishers Of Book Lawsuit Settlement

2009: Google planned to spend up to $8 million on newspaper and print magazine advertising to alert copyright holders about the settlement.

Google Health Makes It Easier To Share Medical Records

2009: Two new tools would help users share their medical information with trusted friends, family members, or medical providers.

Google Shakes Things Up By Adding Earthquake OneBox

2009: Google added an Earthquake OneBox result for a search on [earthquake].

New Coupon & Deals Search Engine Launches

2009: Offers.com entered an already crowded space of coupons/deals sites.

Google Tests Additional Search Box Within Search Results

2008: Google’s “Search Within A Site” search box feature.

Google: Not American’s Most Admired Company (But Almost)

2008: Google ranked at number four while Microsoft ranked at 16. Yahoo did not make the list.

Yahoo onePlace: Think Of It As MyYahoo For Mobile

2008: Yahoo announced a new mobile application called “onePlace” that appeared to be an elegant, highly customizable mobile bookmarking system and RSS reader.

IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine

2008: Ask.com was being refocused to build out an engine that answered questions tailored to women searching on health and entertainment.

YADAC: Yet Another Debate About Cloaking Happens Again

2008: Some cloaking history plus an honest plea to get past this stupid, stupid issue.

From Search Marketing Expo (SMX)

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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