Google is updating Googlebot to make it evergreen, meaning it will be continually updated every time a new version of Chrome is released.
Previously, Googlebot used a web rendering service based on Chrome 41. Now, it has been upgraded to Chrome 74.
“Today, we are happy to announce that Googlebot now runs the latest Chromium rendering engine (74 at the time of this post) when rendering pages for Search. Moving forward, Googlebot will regularly update its rendering engine to ensure support for the latest web platform features.”
Googlebot was intentionally using an older version to ensure compatibility with web pages created for older versions of Chrome. However, this was not beneficial for websites using modern frameworks with features unsupported by Chrome 41.
Google’s Martin Splitt announced that upgrading to Chrome 74 allows Googlebot to support over 1,000 new features.
Some notable new features supported by Googlebot include:
– ES6 and newer JavaScript features
– IntersectionObserver for lazy-loading
– Web Components v1 APIs
It’s also worth mentioning that Google was recently spotted testing an upgraded version of Googlebot:
“At DeepCrawl, we’ve been running tests to catch Google’s updated WRS (using a version higher than Chrome 41) out in the wild since Google mentioned working on it. Now, any test is a SMALL sample – but KiwiAlec found some interesting things to share.”
The test was confirmed by Google, but the company did not specify when the web crawler would be updated. It turns out that day is today.
Lastly, Splitt added that there are still some limitations to the upgraded Googlebot:
“You should check if you’re transpiling or using polyfills specifically for Googlebot, and if so, evaluate if this is still necessary. There are still some limitations, so check our troubleshooter for JavaScript-related issues and the video series on JavaScript SEO.”
Keep checking back for more Google-related updates this week as the company’s I/O conference runs from May 7-9.
