Google is now testing out a new type of free listings product grid on mobile. Instead of the standard grid types, Google is instead testing out a carousel of free listings that feature products that have been recommended within articles or within “best-of” articles.
Google is now testing out a new list of articles feature titled Research More. The unit is quite similar looking to the List Articles test from October but I’m unable to trigger it for the same queries with the same inclusions as this test. The Research More unit takes up quite a bit of space in search results, which can be collapsed to display a Reviews from the web sub-heading. Here’s what the test looks like on mobile.
Google is testing out a new layout for the articles carousel. Instead of the standard carousel format for articles, Google is instead showing two rows of the articles that can be expanded to view more.
Google is now testing out a dedicated unit in search results for list articles. The test features 3 articles by default and can be expanded to show more results
Google is now testing a new carousel on mobile for most-read articles. The articles featured in the most-read articles section look to be articles that are already ranking prominently in Google’s search results. Also showing on desktop here.
Google is now testing out a popular opinions carousel on desktop. Different to the perspectives carousel, the popular opinions carousel seems to only feature links to articles (rather than social media and forum posts).
There appears to be a bug on Google where queries that have the word ‘threads’ in them are generating the forums rich results treatment for non-forum pages. Examples I’ve seen so far include for eCommerce sites and also even blog articles.
Google is now testing a new ‘trending’ label attached to some People Also Ask (PAA) results in Search. I’m able to see this new label associated with some PAA results for queries such as “new bing” and “google bard“. With each PAA result that has the ‘trending’ label attached, they appear to be showing for articles that were written within the past day or so.
February of 2022 was a quiet month overall for Google tests (likely because of the Bard announcement), with the ‘trending’ label being the biggest test that surfaced for PAA results. The test didn’t appear for most users but did create some buzz when it did.
Google is testing a new label associated with content that is quick to read on both mobile and desktop. The label appears with either the text ‘Quick Read’ or ‘< 5 Min Read’, with several different combinations of each. Including ‘Quick Read’ on mobile and desktop, ‘< 5 Min Read’ on desktop in grey and in blue, a grey ‘Quick Read’ variation on mobile, and a ‘QUICK READ’ in uppercase on desktop (6 in total).
The “quick reads” test came in various forms throughout the month and resulted in a significant amount of interest from SEOs. In particular, there was a lot of discussion going back to word count as a ranking factor, which Google has consistency debunked. If Google rolls out this test, will shorter articles be used as an optimisation tactic? Only time will tell.
In a highly visual desktop test, Google is now showing rich cards at the top of search results for celebrity names. The rich cards include sections such as an image with a Wikipedia description overlaid, links to popular articles, videos, and top searches (such as age or net worth). Here’s examples for celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Tony Hawk, Doja Cat and Snoop Dogg.
Out of all tests during the month of July, the rich cards test for celebrities would have to be the most significant of the lot. This test was visible on both mobile and desktop and was very engaging for users. There was some concern around Google using insufficient crediting for sources within this feature, but there was nothing particular new about these concerns.