Google is recently testing a new form of "snippets" to its Search engine, adding information relevant to the webpage in a carousel of relevant headings and small blurbs.
The feature was noted by a few users across Twitter, when they used Google Search to look up anything that had an associated Wikipedia page. As of yet, this feature does seem to be limited to Wikipedia, and might probably stay as such for the potential years to come. More on that later. Searching up a celebrity's name, for example Sylvester Stallone, will lead to the usual Search results popping up. A link to his Wikipedia page will probably be one of the earlier results too.
However, upon scrolling down, one will notice a bunch of sub headings below the link and its preview text. The subheadings, such as Early Life, Acting Career, etc., will be the same as those within the Wikipedia page. They will also have preview text available, which can be read in full once the page is opened up. Scrolling right to left will reveal further headings, thus forming the "carousel" appearance previously alluded to.
The carousel, while reportedly limited to Wikipedia for the nonce, can extend itself to any and all Wikipedia pages. Circulating screenshots have the Wikipedia carousels forming under results for famous individuals, company names, and even more random searches such as "bears". It's an impressive little update, even if it ultimately might lead to the entire Search results webpage having a more cluttered aesthetic. While extending such treatment to other webpages would be an impressive feat, starting with Wikipedia was the way to go. The site presents information in a clear, concise manner, following a singular format that extends itself to all of the webpages it houses. Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is that this feature isn't really new. Another search engine implemented it before Google even started testing.
The carousel snippets were first seen in search results from the Bing search engine. Bing may not be as popular as Google Search is, but the devs try their best to cater more and more to the niche, limited audience that they're managed to amass. The carousel we've seen was officially integrated into Bing's search engine interface all the way back in March of this year. Seems like Google may be a bit late to the show here, but the company's Search engine is still seen as the most popular. Bing doing something before them won't really hurt business overall.
This feature is very clearly under a form of A/B beta testing, since very limited individuals have seen and/or taken screencaps of the feature. When it's expected to be implemented is a question no one can answer definitively. However, considering that the feature's already developed and has been integrated into the Search interface, testing shouldn't take longer than a few months.
Screenshot: @NaktiP.
Read next: Google Is Testing Out Multiple Indented Search Results, After Having Tried Out Single Results Before
The feature was noted by a few users across Twitter, when they used Google Search to look up anything that had an associated Wikipedia page. As of yet, this feature does seem to be limited to Wikipedia, and might probably stay as such for the potential years to come. More on that later. Searching up a celebrity's name, for example Sylvester Stallone, will lead to the usual Search results popping up. A link to his Wikipedia page will probably be one of the earlier results too.
However, upon scrolling down, one will notice a bunch of sub headings below the link and its preview text. The subheadings, such as Early Life, Acting Career, etc., will be the same as those within the Wikipedia page. They will also have preview text available, which can be read in full once the page is opened up. Scrolling right to left will reveal further headings, thus forming the "carousel" appearance previously alluded to.
The carousel, while reportedly limited to Wikipedia for the nonce, can extend itself to any and all Wikipedia pages. Circulating screenshots have the Wikipedia carousels forming under results for famous individuals, company names, and even more random searches such as "bears". It's an impressive little update, even if it ultimately might lead to the entire Search results webpage having a more cluttered aesthetic. While extending such treatment to other webpages would be an impressive feat, starting with Wikipedia was the way to go. The site presents information in a clear, concise manner, following a singular format that extends itself to all of the webpages it houses. Perhaps most interesting of all, however, is that this feature isn't really new. Another search engine implemented it before Google even started testing.
Another example of the SERP feature that @henshaw caught in the wild last week. It's not a featured snippet, and like Jon's example, this was for a Wikipedia listing. Very similar to what Bing is doing for some results... Anyway, just another example. :) pic.twitter.com/g4KqxoGtvJ
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) August 30, 2021
Interesting new @Google rich result. Currently only seeing it used for people coupled with @Wikipedia data. pic.twitter.com/Sjlssx9ll5
— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) August 23, 2021
The carousel snippets were first seen in search results from the Bing search engine. Bing may not be as popular as Google Search is, but the devs try their best to cater more and more to the niche, limited audience that they're managed to amass. The carousel we've seen was officially integrated into Bing's search engine interface all the way back in March of this year. Seems like Google may be a bit late to the show here, but the company's Search engine is still seen as the most popular. Bing doing something before them won't really hurt business overall.
This feature is very clearly under a form of A/B beta testing, since very limited individuals have seen and/or taken screencaps of the feature. When it's expected to be implemented is a question no one can answer definitively. However, considering that the feature's already developed and has been integrated into the Search interface, testing shouldn't take longer than a few months.
Screenshot: @NaktiP.
Read next: Google Is Testing Out Multiple Indented Search Results, After Having Tried Out Single Results Before
