Google has expanded the search descriptions to show the "top answer" and sometimes the "question" for discussion forum like search results. For example, a search for ["incoming search terms"] in Google returns results from Google Groups and StackOverflow and in those snippets, it shows the "top answer" listed in the forum. Here is a picture: Both these forums support the functionality of labeling an answer to the question as a "top answer." Google is clearly picking up on that, structuring the data as such and then displaying that directly in the search results. This is all likel [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Rich Snippets | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Dates | Search Features: Enhanced Listings

You like it! You really like it! It being the Google Search Options feature that Google added to its search pages back in May, the company says. So as a reward, Google is adding options to filter out (or highlight) pages you've visited before, pages that Google's found in the past hour and a toggle to show more or fewer "commercial" listings in its results. My companion piece, Up Close With Google Search Options, does exactly as the headline says. It will take you through ALL the Search Options that Google's offers in great depth, including the new ones. But for those who just want [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: User Interface | Google: Web History & Search History | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Dates | Search Features: Query Refinement | Top News

Now that Google Search Options has added new features, I thought it was a good time to revisit how everything works -- and in some cases, doesn't work. Let's get up close and personal with all the filtering options! NOTE: See Meet The New Google Look & Its Colorful, Useful "Search Options" Column for important updates on how Search Options described below now work. By the way, this is a long article. If you want a digest of what's new today, then see the much shorter companion piece, Google Adds Visited Pages, Past Hour & Fewer Shopping Sites Filtering. Using Search Options [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: General | Google: User Interface | Google: Web History & Search History | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Commands | Search Features: Dates | Search Features: Query Refinement | Top News

Like other search engines, Google already distinguishes between various types of content. You can search specifically for images, videos, books, blog posts, and so forth. Google has separate search engines for each. But two recent changes suggest that Google is improving its ability to classify different types of content that's gathered from ordinary web pages. Search Engine Roundtable points to a discussion on WebmasterWorld about the addition of dates at the beginning of some search results -- something Michael Gray spotted in mid-September. From my personal experience, this seems to be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Dates | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | Top News

Google Cache Showing Last Retrieve Dates in Minutes at Search Engine Roundtable shows how Google is now showing when it last visited some pages on a per minute or per hour basis, rather than in the traditional per day style. For example, this is how Google has normally shown last visit dates for some pages: Now some pages are getting a time stamp showing they were last visited within minutes or hours, rather than days: You should be able to reproduce this yourself by going to http://66.249.89.147/ and searching for some news sites that Google is known to spider on a frequent basis, suc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | Search Features: Dates | Stats: Freshness

A reader emailed me today noticing that Google was showing a date next to his listing, which made me think this was a good time to revisit how, when and where search engines show crawl dates for pages. These dates are a useful way for site owners to understand how often they are being revisited or for anyone to "squeeze the loaf" of a search engine to see how fresh it is. Here's a search engine-by-search engine rundown on date display. I'll also cover how we've sadly lost crawl dates being embedded next to listings, over the years. But that's not all! Read now and you'll even [...]

Related Topics: Ask: SEO | Ask: Web Search | Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing SEO | Search Features: Dates | SEO: Blocking Spiders | SEO: General | SEO: Titles & Descriptions | Stats: Freshness | Yahoo: SEO | Yahoo: Site Explorer