New Google site preview being tested

Anyone else had the chance to see a new site preview in the Google SERPs?

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Looks like they've replaced the tiny magnifying glass with a large vertical button, changed the background colour for the snippet of text and completely filled the right hand area where the PPC ads were.
 
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Mark Reynolds

Free Member
Sep 22, 2011
18
2
Hi Chunkford, I saw <<Link Removed By mods>> - it looks like the version that more people are seeing now involves slightly 'fatter' buttons than when I looked and they've replaced the magnifying glass with arrows. Also the test that I saw strangely put the +1 button within the preview (away from the results) which was strange, but with the new look it seems to be back.

I found my first effective use of instant previews the other day when looking for any website which had a specific photo I was looking for. Gliding from one preview to the other really saved me loads of time rather than clicking on each result. So that's because it's obviously very easy to see the photo in the instant preview.

I'm not quite sure about its effectiveness when it comes to searching for textual content. They've changed the text-preview-snippets to black to make them stand out, but I think it would be even better if they increased the size of the text as well.

Website owners best make sure their website looks nice and clean if this feature is going to get used more, otherwise the number of clicks they get could fall.
 
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UKSBD

Moderator
  • Dec 30, 2005
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    One little tip for those had hadn't noticed.

    The link to the cached snapshot of the page doesn't appear in the SERPs anymore, it does appear above the preview though.

    So if you want to see a cached snapshot, just hover over the arrow that reveals preview and you will see the link above the preview screenshot.
     
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    KidsBeeHappy

    Free Member
    Oct 9, 2007
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    I can't see this sticking, it's not helping anyone.


    My feedback from consumers is that they really like it. I think it's one of those things like adwords & facebook ads, where business people and pro-internet users don't click and don't understand why people click etc. Yet, amazingly, the general public happily click away all day everyday.
     
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    Mark Reynolds

    Free Member
    Sep 22, 2011
    18
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    Bit embarrassed that the links I posted to the articles were blocked after being reported by someone as self promotion :( True they were links to an article I wrote myself(!) but it was only because I've already written a lot on the subject which I thought would be useful to others here - and the thread creator thanked me too...

    Anyway it's an interesting development by Google, if you fancy reading my thoughts about it, then you can search Google for my name and something like 'Google Instant previews'. I'm not promoting myself or my website (I really don't care about that, just read the text.... ) :) Just wanted to bring value to the community, hopefully I've already done that in this thread.

    I don't understand why people would think this improved Google feature isn't helping anyone, for a start it definitely makes it easier to use Google Instant Previews.
     
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