Online Marketing Today: SearchCap: Google Fred confirmation, mobile-first index status & future of search

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

Google: Our search leads won’t let us talk about the Fred update
Mar 23, 2017 by Barry Schwartz
Gary Illyes from Google said the techniques Fred went after specifically are mentioned in their webmaster guidelines.
How much is a happy customer worth?
Mar 23, 2017 by Digital Marketing Depot
In today’s highly analytical marketing world, is it really possible to place a value on customer happiness? Well, yes. And that’s just what we’re going to cover in our upcoming webinar, “The Value of a Happy Customer: Action steps to a great customer experience.” We’ll hear from customer experience expert Christine Crandell, who will explain […]
How AI will shape the future of search
Mar 23, 2017 by Justin Freid
Artificial intelligence is changing the way users access information online. Columnist Justin Freid discusses where the trends are heading and what this might mean for search marketers.
Google’s mobile-first index is (still) months away
Mar 23, 2017 by Matt McGee
At SMX West, Google’s Gary Illyes said the company is still experimenting with its mobile-first index and doesn’t have an exact timeline for launch.
Beware these 7 sneaky PPC attribution tricks
Mar 23, 2017 by Andrew Goodman
You may think you’re hitting your conversion goals, but columnist Andrew Goodman warns that faulty attribution can lead to inaccurate or misleading performance data.
An answer box experiment (my journey into known and unknown factors)
Mar 23, 2017 by Bill Sebald
Many SEOs have sought to obtain placement within a featured snippet or answer box in the search results pages, but how does one achieve that? Contributor Bill Sebald shares his experiment in pursuing the answer box.