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About a week ago, Google launched a feature to show no search results on the search results page, it was called zero results and only showed up for calculations, conversions and time queries. But there was a lot of heated debate around this, with many examples of problems around this implementation.
So as I reported last night at Search Engine Land, Google has reverted this and is no longer showing zero search results.
Danny Sullivan from Google posted on Twitter that "We have enough data and feedback -- which is appreciated -- to conclude that the condensed view experiment should stop for now. The team will look at improving when and how it appears."
Update! We have enough data and feedback -- which is appreciated -- to conclude that the condensed view experiment should stop for now. The team will look at improving when and how it appears.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 20, 2018
So I guess this may come back in another version of some sorts but I am not sure how that would work.
It varies. I shared some examples of it cutting up to half a second -- which is actually a lot. It's even more useful if you're on a slow connection. That really was the main motivator, to speed results for these specific cases where few actually went beyond the tool info.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 20, 2018
So of course, with my sarcasm, I joked that now I want to complain that these zero results were useful to searchers and they should be brought back:
Yes :)
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 20, 2018
Anyway, for now, goodbye zero Google search results, Google has reverted it.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
