When Google determines that what you typed in the search box is a question with a specific answer, it will apparently now show you zero search results. We mean, you’ll of course still get your answer in the search box, but you won’t get other results unless you tap on the “Show all results” button under the box. This is “to help people quickly find the most relevant information” and will be limited to time, calculations, and conversations as of now.
This feature was actually tested out to selected users back in March of this year. However, some people were complaining about it and so they decided to pull it back again and went back to the drawing board on how best to go about this. Now it looks like they’ve improved and finalized on it and is now slowly rolling it out to users, hoping that there will be fewer complaints about it this time.
Basically, if you ask Google what time it is in a specific area, what is the answer to a mathematical problem, and what is the conversion from your local currency to US dollars, you don’t need other search results anymore. It will hide the main search results to help you get to the answer more quickly. The single result will also help improve the load time for mobile users, which is always good news for those saving up on their data.
But in some cases, when Google thinks you still want to get to the search results, they will show it. For example, if you search for time in New York, there may be a possibility that you’re actually looking for The New York Times instead of the actual time in New York. So in cases like this, you’ll still see the search results underneath the time, conversion, or calculation.
This is good news of course if you’re looking for answers in any of those categories. But it may also be bad news for certain brand names that may be close to the results or the queries and may be hidden under the Show All Results. It looks like it’s a server-side update so just wait for it to come to you.
VIA: Search Engine Land
