Google Adds Featured Snippets & Rich Lists for Books

If you are an avid reader, you will be happy to know that Google has expanded on the number of book related search queries that will now trigger a featured snippet or rich list in the search results.

They are showing up for a variety of queries when searching for a book or book series along with keywords related to something about the book the searcher wishes to know.

Here are some of the new featured snippets and rich lists I noticed:

Page count for books:

Published date:

Character names:

Information on the book behind popular movie adaptations:

You can even ask things like how many books are in a series, which spawns both a featured snippet and a knowledge panel.

Or if you just need reminding of the title of a specific book in a series:

It is interesting how Google isn’t favoring a single source for these book related featured snippets.  When asking about specific books in the Harry Potter series, the second book resulted in a Scholastic result, the third book resulted in a Wikipedia result, the fourth & fifth were from Amazon (no, not affiliate links), while the sixth and seventh were from Wikia.

Google is even showing featured snippets related to rumors about not-even-announced books.

Some searches related to characters will also spawn a rich list, to show other characters in a book or series.  Each character listed can be clicked on for more detailed information about that character.  Examples from The Thorn Birds and Anne of Green Gables:

In May, Google also began showing reviews in featured snippets for many books. And earlier, they also began showing carousels for some book searches, along with expanded knowledge panels on specific books to detail additional things such as related books.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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