Thursday, we reported that some users are seeing 'brand for' links in Google's search results. Over the weekend, Google confirmed it with a blog post calling these "Brand refinements in search results."
Sometimes when searching for product information on Google, you may not know some of the brand names relevant to your particular search. For example, if you're taking on a new river-rafting hobby, it's quite likely you don't have a clue about kayak manufacturers just yet. So, we wanted to make it easier for you to find the brands other people consider useful for popular product searches. So this week we launched a search refinement that calls out brand names related to your query in a single line above the rest of the results. Determined algorithmically, these highlighted brand names may help you find what you're looking for faster, and make your research and shopping experience all the more enjoyable.Example searches: [wedding dress], [digital camera] and [stroller]
Honestly, I am still not able to see them myself, but there is no doubt they are here. I see dozens of threads in the forums with people talking about them. Rubie from Google even posted an announcement thread at Google Web Search Help but there is still a lot of discussion on it at the original thread.
A WebmasterWorldthread has a great comment:
I guess the Vince update wasn't enough for them."Brands are the solution, not the problem," Mr. Schmidt said. "Brands are how you sort out the cesspool."
Do you agree?
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld& Google Web Search Help.
