In the Google search engine results pages (SERPs) and new feature has rolled out to let users find out more about a website without going to the site. Next to the title in the results you’ll see a vertical ellipsis and when you click on this more info will appear.
According to Google, “When available, you’ll see a description of the website from Wikipedia, which provides free, reliable information about tens of millions of sites on the web … If a website doesn’t have a Wikipedia description, we’ll show you additional context that may be available, such as when Google first indexed the site … You’ll also be able to quickly see if your connection to the site is secure based on its use of the HTTPS protocol, which encrypts all data between the website and the browser you’re using, to help you stay safe as you browse the web.”
Now, according to Search Engine Land, “Google has the ‘BETA’ label on this feature but it has been testing this for a while. We saw tests of this in October 2019 and October 2020. Google told us it has done a lot of user testing to understand if people find this feature useful. Google said it will continue to iterate this feature after it has launched based on user feedback and its tests results. If searchers have feedback, they can provide it via the link at the bottom of the panel, Google told us.”
Of course, there is more detailed information to be had so I recommend reading the full documentation by clicking the link in the Citations section below.
Once again Google is focusing on improving user experience and delivering helpful information to users. If this feature takes off you can expect to see more detailed information in the About this result box which will help users decide whether they want to venture to a particular website or not.
Citations
https://blog.google/products/search/about-search-results
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-launches-about-this-result-feature-345649
