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Google has quietly changes the authorship snippet within the search results. Google has removed the "more by" author link, which was added in 2011 and has changed the click behavior of some of the links in the authorship snippet.
Here is how the snippet looks right now, the new method:
Here is the old snippet from a few months ago:
As you can see, the most obvious change is the "More by Barry Schwartz" link was removed. The links are no longer colored blue. I should also note, that when you click from the author image or the name, it takes you to a search results page that matches on author name, as shown below. The "in X Google+ circles" takes you to the author's Google+ page. So now, the image no longer takes you to the Google+ page but only the search results page. This is probably better for searcher experience but not for promoting Google+.
Which user interface did you prefer?
Forum discussion at Google+.
Comments:
Andrea Moro
04/25/2013 12:53 pm
Honestly I did see the new one since a while now, and I barely remember the first format. Hence I would probably say I like the new one :)
Damien Anderson
04/25/2013 01:05 pm
I like the new one too.
Meow
04/25/2013 02:38 pm
Have the pictures shrunk too?
Barry Schwartz
04/25/2013 02:39 pm
Not recently.
shaycw
04/25/2013 04:24 pm
I'd prefer that the links in the person's name and in "X number of G+ circle" at least be underlined so that users that aren't familiar with this new format at least understand they can click on those links. You have to scroll over them now to realize they're clickable links.
DaveKeys
04/25/2013 08:02 pm
I remember watching a video by good old Matt Cutts who said that links that were not clearly links but that looked like the rest of the text were considered "hidden links." What happened? Can I do that too now?
Soni Sharma
04/26/2013 04:44 am
Yes... I noticed...
Govind Singh Rautela
04/26/2013 06:39 am
I like the new one ;)
Ian Smith
04/26/2013 09:51 am
The question is 'what does it mean to small businesses'??
chaudhary amir
04/28/2013 06:57 pm
Yes i noticed few days ago
David
04/29/2013 10:56 am
Also like the new.I think the biggest advantage of this now is the fact that when you click on the face picture it gives you a SERP instead of the author's G+ page, making it easier for people to see what other stuff he/she contributed on or to what particular site an entity is connected with.