It looks like Google’s SGE is here to stay as the company is testing new ways how this artificial intelligence or AI-powered search engine looks. Spotted by X user Glenn Gabe, SGE now looks lighter, with fewer colors and with a show more button.
“SGE doesn’t trigger a large block by default anymore… it’s now much smaller with a large ‘Show more’ button,” said Gabe in his post.
This minimalist design starkly contrasts with Google’s updates in previous months, which seek to add more features. Here are some SGE updates that we’ve previously covered in SEOBlog:
- Business Profile Data: Google added business videos and photos from its vast 200 million-sized database to add more flair to its AI-generated results instead of just a block of text.
- Local Stores With Stock: This feature will show you nearby stores with the product you searched for in their inventory.
- Citation Links: Google SGE’s summaries now display clickable source links to increase web publishers’ traffic.
- SGE for Learning: This update allows you to digest more information as you browse the web to research and learn how to code.
But this lighter design doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on these features. They’re still there, but with a new look – if ever it gets out of the testing phase.
Whichever looks better is a matter of preference, though. The “SGE Lite,” as Gabe calls it, blends well with the rest of the search engine results page (SERP). On the other hand, the much more colorful original version stands out, giving life to the otherwise dull page of 10 blue links we’re all accustomed to.
Despite these cosmetic and technical enhancements, we’re yet to see a solid plan to monetize SGE from Google – how will ads look with SGE taking up a bulk of space in the SERPs? Will ranking systems reward publishers with great content through SGE as well? How exactly will ranking work in this new chapter of Google?
We’re yet to see concrete answers to these questions as Google tests out and identifies the funk and nitty-gritty of SGE.
Here’s the link to the full discussion on X.
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