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Google starts showing full page previews in search results

Google is today testing a major new layout to their search results – full page previews of the target site and blue backgrounds behind the search results when you hover over them. Click the image below for a full size version.

One of the fascinating things about this is that they are highlighting certain sections of the page in orange and expanding the text to provide a snippet of information. This shows that they have the technology to know exactly where a piece of text is on every single web page. The snippets highlighted are not always the same as the snippet in the search results.

The size of the preview seems to be pretty much the full page although some longer pages are cropped at the bottom. You can click anywhere on the preview to take you directly to the site.

In addition to this they are now showing multiple results from the same site without indenting the results – see how myvouchercodes.co.uk has 1st and 2nd for the query above. This change follows a similar one they did in August Google to start showing more results from one particular site when users entered a brand related query.

Look how freelanceuk.com has 2nd & 3rd for the query above.

This new change is for non-brand queries as well. We have seen sites occupying 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th for some queries! Thanks to Digital production agency for point this one out.

To be 100% clear – this is not a plugin. I’m using Google Chrome incognito mode with no plugins installed.

Screenshots via digital agencies.

BY Patrick Altoft AT 1:51pm ON Wednesday, 6 October 2010

Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3 and has worked in the SEO industry for over 10 years. With experience across some of the worlds largest brands as well as startup businesses Patrick is well known in the industry and speaks regularly at the major SEO conferences and events. Follow Patrick on Twitter or Google+

Comments

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  • anju

    hello, yes i like the preview wh is showing by google but i am facing the problem in my preview its not showing proper can u tell me please whats the reason behind it…why googleis not showing my website preview in proper layout.

    thank you

  • http://www.gloyns.com Gloyns

    Has anybody completed any tests on what metrics Google may use to determine the snippet text?

    I feel its just going to be the most relevant section of content on the page, but not conducting any research yet.

  • http://www.opiyo.co.uk SEO Cheltenham

    Have their been any studies on the CTR for this? Would be interesting to see the effect it might have had for some sites

  • http://www.mortonsmailing.com Mailing Fulfilment

    What impact do you think this will have on click through rate from googles search listings?

  • http://www.iceboxdesigns.co.uk/ Manchester Web Design

    i think with all these new features and added enhancements that Google is doing to it’s search engine, it is losing how google used to function with the quality of the results, speed and simplicity. adding all these new features might be cool and awesome to use, but to the general public…. it might force them to use BING (LOL)
    Thanks for posting!
    Danny

  • http://www.postcardprint.co.uk Printing

    I’m concerned about the impact of CTR here as a result of a preview.

  • http://www.proguardselfstorage.com/washington/kingston_washington_covered_boat_storage.html Kingston Covered Boat Storage

    Well looks like google is leading the way for the other Search Engines as usual. Not really sure how this would really help.

  • http://www.newlookdiscountcode.com New Look Discount Code

    I find the preview really annoying when browsing search results, I’m not sure how many people will actually use this feature.

  • http://www.perfectboundbooks.org.uk Perfect Bound Books

    I think this will just clog up the search results. Google are renowned for minimalism but this will look awful in my opinion.

  • http://www.125motorbikes.co.uk 125motorbikes

    Totally agree – I only ever have them pop up by accident and I don’t think I’ve ever found them useful.

    To an extent they’re just making the results pages heavier to load, which seems to go against the design ethos of Google Search.

  • http://www.newhomesyork.co.uk New Homes York

    I agree here too, totally against the Google ethos.

  • http://iseoforgoogle.wordpress.com Akash Kumar

    The full page reviews are proving out to be very useful for us. Atleast it gives us the idea about the page. We can ignore the most irrelevant pages by seeing the preview.

  • http://www.anchorstorageonline.com/washington/stanwood_washington_mini_storage.html Stanwood Mini Storage

    Thanks for posting this article. I’m decidedly frustrated with struggling to search out pertinent and intelligent commentary on this issue.

  • http://www.folderprinters.co.uk Folder Printing

    This is probably the one area where yahoo/bing may win over google. I find it annoying when trawling through search results and accidentally hovering over the preview button!

  • http://www.passief-inkomen.net passief inkomen

    Hi. I am using Goolge all the time, but I don’t like the preview option. It bothers me when I am surfing the serp’s. I cannot understand why google did this. The preview is not readible at all, you can only see if the design is somewhat professional.

    I was looking on the web if I could turn off this feature, but no luck.

    Any ideas?

    Dennis

  • http://www.artificialcolours.co.uk Web Design Eastbourne

    I love these instant previews, as a web designer, it makes looking for nicely designed websites really easy!
    Also helps weed out the spammy sites!

  • http://www.foldedleaflets.org.uk Folded leaflets

    Hi Danny, i agree completely. What happened to simple, minimal Google.

  • http://www.shortrunbooks.org.uk book printing

    I must say this does annoy me. What happened to good old fashioned optimisation of your title and description tags to entice the click?

  • http://www.freenationallotterytickets.co.uk Warren

    Very happy with this change when it happened. Makes web developers work harder and it makes it harder for people who create sites like youtude.com or something to trick less experienced google users to their sites. If you look at it from a more normal business point of view. Google sells search results, now they display them for your visually (not just a link) before you purchase (click).

    Warren

  • http://www.folderprintingdirect.co.uk Folder Printing Direct

    I think it’s a pretty handy feature to have a preview of the site you are about to visit, but site designers are going to have to try and pre-empt the text element that Google decides to highlight.

  • http://www.silkydrawers.co.uk shabby chic furniture

    I read an article on a teenager who has created an app called Sumly which now summarises search results and displays content as opposed to a snapshot of the search result, i wonder how this will effect googles preview.

  • http://www.cottrellandcharles.co.uk gardening stratford upon avon

    I really dislike this feature, it needs improving.

  • http://www.seoeaze.com/ Ankit Pandey

    Yes, its global now, and I find it very useful as I can see the full page instantly before visiting the site, it saves my time :)

  • http://www.technetsavvy.com Sagar

    This is really cool and saves a lot of time, another great feature by Google. :)

  • http://www.socialbullets.com Social SEO

    I don’t think if this is going to get any success with Google. Google is changing its search technology every now and then with new and added feature. Before people gets used to to the old one it introduces new one.

  • http://www.resultsseo.co.uk seo

    I really don’t like this feature. If anything it’s annoying when i’m scanning through pages of results. I accidentally hover over the preview icon and up pops the huge page preview! Can this be disabled as part of your account settings within Google?

  • http://www.viagrakopenonline.nl/ viagra

    Am starting to hate google more! Freaking SE do your work dont give me this previews !

  • http://www.rootgrow.co.uk plant feed

    Ahh yes the annoying previews, the sooner Google remove these the better! Seems others here feel the same.

  • http://www.livecasinodirect.com/countries/australia/ Pokie

    I wonder if anybody uses this feature at all. I am not sure about instant search either. It is true that conclusions need to be drawn on the mass experience but still I have doubts on that.

  • http://www.assurance-directe.fr assurances

    That’s very useful to show cache’s pages

  • http://www.thedroidblog.com/ Shubham Gupta

    Hi, I completely agree with you.

  • http://droidtomorrow.com/ DroidGuy

    Probably he could be wrap the browser as full screen, or its plugin? cause still its off out the page.

  • http://www.dieselcarcompany.com used diesel cars for sale

    I can’t help but feel that this will reduce CTR to some sites.

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