Google's John Mueller said on Friday's webmaster hangout that while the current URL parameter tool has been missing data for a while, it is not a sign that Google will deprecate it. In fact, he said when the tool does migrate to the new Search Console, it "will have some really cool stuff coming out."

John would not say more outside of "it'll be pretty cool" and he does not want to pre-announce anything.

He said this at the 11:04 mark when Mihai asked him about what is going on with the missing data in the URL parameter tool. John said the data should be fixed "fairly soon."

Here is the transcript on the data issue part:

The data there has been missing for a really long time but that's not because we want to deprecate it it's just because things are weirdly stuck on our side with kind of the various teams that are involved with creating that data. Internally we use the kind of similar data already, it's not that we don't follow that input at all. It's just the data that we display in Search Console is kind of stuck just before it reaches Search Console.
And my understanding is that that should get resolved fairly soon but I've been hoping that that's fairly soon for a while now. So I've been nudging a little bit more. Hopefully, that'll get better.

Then he hinted at what is to come, without saying more than it would be very cool and useful for very large sites:

With regards to moving to the new Search Console, My understanding is that they do want to kind of keep that functionality and move that to the new tool as well. I expect especially for larger websites we will have some really cool stuff coming out as well over time that. Yeah, it'll be pretty cool. I don't want to pre-announce anything so I'm not going to go into more any details there. But it definitely is something that makes sense to focus on as you mentioned for e-commerce sites with a lot of parameters. You can clean up some things there and make it a little bit easier to crawl and index your site.

We know Google still uses the data from this tool, a lot. And Google did say the URL parameter may change, which is why we have not seen it migrate yet from the old Search Console to the new Search Console.

Source: seroundtable

Also Read:

PUBG CORPORATION TO TAKE OVER PUBG MOBILE FROM TENCENT GAMES IN INDIA    

PUBG MOBILE 1.0 UPDATE RELEASED  

HARLEY DAVIDSON LOOKING FOR PARTNERSHIP WITH INDIAN TWO-WHEELER COMPANIES    

INTERVIEW WITH UMMEED SHRESTHA, DIRECTOR OF KUZU NEPAL PVT. LTD.    

FORD ENDEAVOUR SPORT SUV TO BE LAUNCHED SOON    

EPIC GAMES ASKS COURT TO PREVENT WHAT IT DESCRIBES AS APPLE'S "RETALIATION"

TOP 4 CANON CAMERA IN NEPAL | WITH SPECS AND PRICE  

NISSAN UNVEILS ITS FIRST ELECTRIC SUV, THE ARIYA WITH DETAILED SPECS    

France’s highest administrative court has upheld a fine of 50 million euros ($56 million) Google was ordered to pay for not being “sufficiently clear and transparent” with Android users about their data protection options.

Google was first slapped with the fine in January 2019, the first penalty for a U.S. tech giant under new European data privacy rules that took effect in 2018.

Google appealed the penalty issued by the French data privacy watchdog to the Council of State, France’s final arbiter in such cases.

The council ruled Friday that the National Data Protection Commission had the right to sanction Google and that the fine was not disproportionate, “given the particular seriousness” and duration of Google’s failings.

In response, Google said it would look at making changes.

In force since May 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, is aimed at clarifying individual rights to personal data collected by companies. It requires companies to use plain language to explain what they’re doing with data.

In sanctioning Google, France’s data watchdog had said Google users were “not sufficiently informed” about what they were agreeing to as the company collected data for targeted advertisements.

It faulted Google for making users take too many steps, “sometimes up to 5 or 6 actions,” to find out how and why their data is being used and for being “too generic and vague” in descriptions of why data is processed.

The Council of State concurred and faulted Google for “particularly intrusive” data collection methods.

It said the firm “has not provided sufficiently clear and transparent information to users of the Android operating system and has not enabled them to give free and informed consent to the processing of their personal data for the purpose of personalizing advertisements.”

Google said Friday that it has “invested in industry-leading tools” to help its users “understand and control how their data is used.”

“This case was not about whether consent is needed for personalized advertising, but about how exactly it should be obtained,” the company said. “In light of this decision, we will now review what changes we need to make.”

Google said Monday it has removed misleading and fraudulent ads targeting Americans looking for information about how to vote in November’s presidential election.

Some of the ads charged fees for registering people to vote, while others sucked up people’s personal information for marketing purposes. The ads were discovered by the nonprofit tech watchdog Tech Transparency Project.

The group found that search terms such as “register to vote,” “vote by mail” and “where is my polling place” generated ads linking to websites that charge fees for voter registration, harvest user data, or plant unwanted software on people’s browsers. Google says such ads are prohibited on its platform.

“We are committed to protecting users from abuse on our platforms, especially when it comes to information about elections,” said Google spokeswoman Charlotte Smith.

Italy’s competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Apple, Google and Dropbox over their cloud storage services.

The competition and market authority said Monday it has opened a total of six investigations into Apple iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox’s online storage service in response to complaints about unfair commercial practices and violations of the country’s consumer rights directive. In one case, it’s also looking into “vexatious clauses” in a contract.

The regulator said it’s looking into whether the three companies either failed to, or did not adequately, indicate how users’ data would be collected and used for commercial purposes. It is also examining whether Dropbox failed to provide clear and accessible information on how users could get out of contracts or pursue out of court dispute settlements.

Apple, Google, and Dropbox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Italian probe follows wider efforts by European Union regulators to clarify the fine print tech companies use in their terms and conditions of service so consumers can better understand how their information is being used. Facebook updated its terms of service last year to clarify how it makes money from user data in response to pressure from European regulators.

source:AP

Also Read:

BOSNIAN TESLA FAN IMPATIENT FOR CYBERTRUCK RELEASE BUILDS A LOOKALIKE

PENTAGON: RE-EVALUATION FINDS MICROSOFT'S JEDI PROPOSAL STILL IS BEST

HONOR HUNTER: GAMING LAPTOP LAUNCHING ON SEPTEMBER 16    

MARVEL'S AVENGERS GAME LANDS ON XBOX, PLAYSTATION & STADIA    

EPIC GAMES ASKS COURT TO PREVENT WHAT IT DESCRIBES AS APPLE'S "RETALIATION"

TOP 4 CANON CAMERA IN NEPAL | WITH SPECS AND PRICE  

NISSAN UNVEILS ITS FIRST ELECTRIC SUV, THE ARIYA WITH DETAILED SPECS