Google has added founder and management information for many large companies into their search results. They appear as rich lists, featured snippets, and carousels, and they appear alongside the traditional knowledge panels that Google has displayed for many companies for some time.
The rich lists show up for a variety of companies – both tech and non-tech.
When you click on one of their names, you get a search result page for that person, along with their personal knowledge panel.
They are also showing founders in a carousel style as well instead of in the rich list format others are in. This could be a result of having 5+ founders in the list.
This definitely seems to be taking the place of the usual Crunchbase searches people often do for companies, particularly start ups. However, start ups, at least newer ones, don’t seem to be triggering these rich lists or carousels.
They are also triggering for positions at companies, and actually has detailed information regarding the timelines of when others were in that position. Here is one for Twitter:
However, a search for Google’s CEO only included Larry Page.
Others will just show the name alone, without further details.
However, there are some errors happening. For example a search for Apple’s CEO lists Steve Jobs name with his photo from Wikipedia, but has the biography and source link of Tim Cook, the current CEO. When you expand the listing, it shows the detailed information for Steve Jobs, which matches the title and photo, not for Tim Cook, which is the information included in the main portion of the panel and the URL.
But doing a search for simply “Apple CEO” rather than “who is Apple CEO” does display the correct information. They do use two different sources, one Wikipedia and the other Biography.com.
While this is really just an expansion of information currently displayed in the knowledge panel, it shows that Google is really pushing forward with giving searchers information at their fingertips without having to click through to a search result.
I expect we will see this continue to be expanded, possibly including investor information in the future.
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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.
