Google is now testing out a featured snippets extension on mobile titled ‘People also say’. Within the examples I’ve seen, the People also say section features snippets from two other sites. Interestingly, when clicking ‘more results’, it actually takes you to the Perspectives filter, which was meant to have been replaced by Forums. This test is in a similar vein to this test from 2020, with a ‘See what other sites say’ extension that appeared.
Google has now launched the ‘Product’ and ‘Product Sites’ search menu tabs in the UK and some parts of Europe. Last week, it was reported that the ‘Perspectives’ menu was changed to ‘Forums’ (note: this is only in the US), with the new UK menu items being a continuation of this.
The launch of the new menu items in the UK/parts of Europe ended up being the most significant change in Google’s search results for the month. With there now being a clear trend in Google trialling out segmenting search results more heavily for users according to content format.
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).
Google is now testing out adding additional items to the standard search bar arrangement. This includes a menu item for Web Results and also one for Forums.
This test ended up being the most significant for the month, with Google announcing in the following month that ‘Forums’ would be replacing ‘Perspectives’ in the US. Web Results still remains as a test, which will likely continue with the introduction of AI-powered overviews in Search.
Google is now testing a new mobile format for Perspectives where the carousel extends upon a Featured Snippet at the top of the page. Clicking a result takes you to the Perspectives filter page which is the standard experience for this feature.
Originally appearing on mobile in April, Google is now testing social media accounts with profile photos and follower counts on desktop. The desktop test is the same as mobile, having the social platform logo in the bottom right corner of the image. This round of testing has a similar view/like/comment etc. count to results in the perspectives filter.
Google has now officially launched the Perspectives filter on mobile in the US. This is exactly one month after Google made the announcement for the filter. I like the filter overall but feels like it’s missing functionality to make it truly useful.
Google is now displaying a horizontal treatment of various domains and website snippets on desktop appearing within a featured snippet. From what I have seen, Google is displaying up to 3 different websites and also 2 websites horizontally, similar to the original ‘perspectives’ test that was exclusively on mobile.
Google is currently running a mobile test for Featured Snippets with a ‘Perspectives’ label. The test shows other alternate answers to the query, with 2 variations appearing at this time. While the ‘Perspectives’ label is new, this test was virtually the same back in June (minus the label and more simplified) with 3 different variations. ‘Perspectives’ was first reported on by SER.