Google has announced changes regarding the detection of their traffic sources. Historically, Piano Analytics could identify certain Google surfaces based on the referrer (for example, discover.google or googleapis.com). Google no longer consistently communicates these referrers.
Source:
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/02/search-console-performance-discover-chrome
What changed
Previously, distinct referrers made it possible to distinguish between:
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Google Discover
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Chrome Content Suggestions
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Google Search
Due to Google’s update, these services now commonly share the same referrer (typically https://www.google.com/). Because Piano Analytics depends on referrer information provided by the browser/Google, this change reduces the granularity of traffic source detection for Google-related traffic.
How traffic is attributed now
When the referrer is no longer specific, traffic that previously would have been attributed to Google Discover (and often Chrome Content Suggestions) is now attributed to:
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Search Engine / Search (for Google, typically shown as Search Engine - Google - Search)
As a result, it is no longer possible to reliably identify traffic coming specifically from Google Discover.
Chrome Content Suggestions are still identified when the referrer android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox is received.
Impact on analysis
When analyzing audience acquisition from Google, interpret “Search Engine - Google - Search” as potentially including a mix of:
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Google Search
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Google Discover
Because the referrer is no longer consistently distinguishable, these sources cannot be separated with full accuracy.