Yahoo is testing yet another variation of Google-like search results. This change seems like it could be permanent, or if not, they are doing a large scale test at the moment, as many people are seeing the new Yahoo UI. When you consider Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s current CEO, was behind many of the UI design […]
Archives for 2015
Yahoo Adds “Official Site” Tags to Search Ads
Yahoo is testing a new “Official Site” tag on their ads, to denote when a site is advertising is an official site, rather than a partner or reseller. Here it is in action: When you mouseover it, however, it changes to red instead. These only seem to trigger when you do a brand search for […]
Bing’s Featured Snippets Asking “Is This Answer Helpful?”
Bing has been testing their own version of featured snippets for a very small set of search queries. They appear to be expanding it slightly, but also asking for feedback. When one of the featured snippets displays, it also features two bright blue icons, one for thumbs up and one for thumbs down, so users […]
Google Adds Software Knowledge Cards With Official Download Link
Google wants to make sure when searchers download a piece of software that they are downloading from the legitimate resource and not from a third-party site that often piggybacks spyware and changes default search and browser settings. Google has added new knowledge cards to the search results that are triggered when someone searches for “<software […]
Bing Adds Their Own Movie Review Knowledge Cards
Bing really, really, really wants you to know the rating for a movie by highlighting it in very large text in this movie review knowledge card that has started showing up in their search results. They show the identical three review sources that Google also uses in their own knowledge cards. The number they are […]
Google Begins Showing Featured Snippets for Betting Odds
Google has begin showing betting odds in featured snippets in their search results, that are triggered by including “odds” in the search query along with a person, sporting event, sports team or player. Dan Barker was the first to notice featured snippets being displayed for sports betting odds. Google is starting to (attempt to) show […]
Yahoo Testing Search Result Ads With Colored Background
This particular test by Yahoo with their search result ads is definitely a blast from the past. They are testing search ads with a pale blue background. Those who have been around the industry for a while will remember when colored backgrounds – first blue then yellow, along with some random test colors along the […]
Movie Theme Carousels in Google’s Movie Knowledge Panels
If you are a movie buff, you are going to love a new feature from Google. When you search for a movie on Google, such as a favorite movie or a movie in a favorite genre, Google will also present three different carousels that users can click on to see related movies in a specific […]
Bing Adds TripAdvisor Reviews to Search Results for Hotels & Attractions
Bing is stepping up their game in local travel by adding reviews from TripAdvisor into their search results when people search for specific hotels and attractions. Here are some examples for hotel searches. And here is an example of a theme park also showing the TripAdvisor reviews. It is worth noting that when these TripAdvisor […]
Google Adds Snippets to Movie Review Knowledge Cards
Google recently made a change to include movie review scores in their knowledge cards at the top of the search results. They have now expanded those cards to include not only the ratings but also quotes from the reviews themselves. You can then click to expand and see more critic reviews. Here is another one, […]