Google Tests Showing 3rd-Party Info For Sites In Search Results, Gets Info Wrong For Its Own Site

Google is reportedly testing a new feature on search results pages, that lets you click on a small, gray link beside the URL, to obtain more information about the site the result comes from on an over...
Google Tests Showing 3rd-Party Info For Sites In Search Results, Gets Info Wrong For Its Own Site
Written by Chris Crum
  • Google is reportedly testing a new feature on search results pages, that lets you click on a small, gray link beside the URL, to obtain more information about the site the result comes from on an overlay card.

    Google Operating System shows off the test, which was first reported by Techno Net (Spanish). Here’s what it looks like:

    Google SERP overlay

    Google reportedly gets most of these descriptions from Wikipedia, but from other sources sometimes. This sounds like Google’s Knowledge Graph, but it’s unclear whether they’re directly connected. Like with the Knowledge Graph, errors in information are possible. Google Operating System even shows where Google gets the wrong description for its own Google.ca site, which for some reason, shows a description for Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School (Brampton).

    We can only imagine how upset webmasters would be if Google started showing erroneous information for their sites in organic search results.

    See Google Operating System’s post for instructions for how to set your browser to be able to view the test if you’re interested.

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