Google Testing Snippet Size Controls in Search Results

Sep 29, 2008 - 8:11 am 2 by
Filed Under Google

A WebmasterWorld thread reports Google is testing giving the users the ability to set the size of the search results snippets. Google is showing at the upper left of the search results page "Web: Result details: S M L" The "S," "M," and "L" letters are button like and they control the snippets.

S = No snippets M = 161 character description in the snippet area L = 638 character description in the snippet area

TechCrunch secured a picture:

Google Snippet Test

Member iridiax at WebmasterWorld said:

I've been using it all day today on the L detail setting, and I really like it. It shows a meta description and on-page content, so it's much easier to distinguish between good pages with real info as opposed to keyword list spam or stub pages with just a deceptively nice meta description.

He is the only one that sees this, that I am aware of.

Personally, this control would make more sense to have in the search preferences, but I guess Google needs to test it out on a few people, before deciding to add it anywhere.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

 

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