Google search results page displays answer without any search results

Who needs the ten blue links when you have the answer? Google is hiding the organic listings from some search results.

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Google is now showing answers without any additional search results for some queries. For example, if you search for [time in los angeles] or [time in new zealand], Google will show the answer, then show a button below the answer to load the search results.

Google said for the queries where this shows up, searchers “rarely use full search results,” and if the searcher wants those results, they can access it with the ‘Show all results’ button.”

Here is a screen shot:

Google Answer No Results

It also works for calculator types of queries:

Google Calculator

And conversions:

Temperature

Units

I have tried to replicate this for other answer box-related queries such as [how old is obama], [who is the president], [rangers game score], [when is sunset] and other queries but was unable to trigger this for anything outside of “what time is it…” related queries.

As you can see, Google has added a button for “show all results” to load the results after.

Danny Sullivan of Google responded saying:

For calculator, unit converter & local time, we’re experimenting with a condensed view to further speed up load time. People who search for these tools rarely use full search results, but the results will remain available for those who want them via the “Show all results” button.

Hat tip to @AnalyticsNinja for spotting this first.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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