Google has announced a pair of changes to its search results pages that make its search results pages more informational and give searchers information they’re looking for without having to click away from Google.com.
Events In Rich Snippets
Adding to last year’s announcement of rich snippets for reviews and people, Google has created one for events, too.
Using the hCalendar microformat, Google will show information and links to specific events as part of the snippet below a search result. If you offer event listings, check Google’s documentation for more on how to use this. Note that Google says this will be rolled out gradually, and that using the hCalendar microformat won’t guarantee that rich snippets will show for your site.
Answer Highlighting
Google has also announced plans to add more answers and information into its search results. Google says it’s using the research behind Google Squared to power this effort to extract facts from web pages. When Google identifies a search as factual in nature, and can find the answer on a web page, it may highlight the answer in the snippet.
Google says this feature is rolling out “during the next couple days” on Google.com.
Answer Highlighting may have a negative impact on search traffic to information-based web sites. Rather than referring traffic to sites and pages like these, Google is now explicitly pulling the facts from these pages and showing them in its own search results.
Related Topics: Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Enhanced Listings | Search Features: Shortcuts | Top News
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