It appears that Google is now ranking products by their ratings in some Google Shopping results – the sponsored results that appear either at the top or on the right of the search results page.

Jon Gregoire at CPC Strategy Blog (via Search Engine Land) points this out, looking at queries for “coffee grinders” and “best coffee grinders”. If you include the word “best” you get the rankings.

Here’s “best samsung phones”:

Here’s “best sony tvs”:

Curiously, there doesn’t appear to be consistency if you use the word “best” or “top”.

Here’s “top sony tvs”:

Why does it change?

According to Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land, the feature is just a test. Give it a try, and see if you get the rankings on any queries.

Images via Google