We’ve been following Barry’s thread at Search Engine Land about Google’s navigational tests over the past few days. For those not familiar with the story, Google appears to be testing ways to better merchandise their entire complement of search solutions on their main reply page. Well it seems that they’re not done yet, as a [...]
We’ve been following Barry’s thread at Search Engine Land about Google’s navigational tests over the past few days. For those not familiar with the story, Google appears to be testing ways to better merchandise their entire complement of search solutions on their main reply page. Well it seems that they’re not done yet, as a member of our team found yet another variation of their ongoing tests this morning.
Seems like Google’s throwing a bunch of different stuff out there right now to see what sticks.
Most of the examples we’ve seen have been of a small box above the sponsored listings that contains the links that are typically right above the search box. It looks something like this:
However, we’ve also seen some results pages on this end that include a few related search links alongside the general navigation cues. Check out this search for “George Washington”
Google has been testing various ways to present these types of related search results for months now. While similar “related search” links are currently displayed at the bottom of the SERP, we’ve also seen variations where Google will include 1-3 results for a related but distinctly different search term actually imbedded into the main results.
So what should we infer from the continued testing? Does this test suggest that people were confused by the change in search term halfway down the reply page?
Further Reading:
- Google Testing Search Product Offerings (PPC Blog)
- Google Testing New Alternative Search Navigation Links (Search Engine Roundtable)
Interesting on those related searches….