We've covered the topic twice before but it still somewhat fascinating to me that Google is asking searchers to submit answers to questions (or ask questions) when Google doesn't think they have content in their index with the answer. You won't see this in the US but it is often seen in India and other regions where content isn't available to answer the query.
Here is a video of it in action posted by SEMRush on Twitter - I made it into a GIF:
Google confirmed this is a feature back about a year ago, specifically saying A Google spokesperson told us that this is a small scale experiment designed to continue surfacing high quality, relevant results for our users by supporting a healthy content ecosystem. This surfaces when Google thinks the searcher is not finding what they are looking for. Then Google will experiment with ways to highlight these questions to content creators who may be able to publish articles on their properties to better answer these questions. One such way is demonstrated above. Google added that the goal is to enrich the entire web ecosystem and thereby improve search results for users who may search for the same question in the future. Google said it does not plan to create that content, nor does the company plan to pay others to create the content. Google also told us it does not share any information with third parties beyond the actual text of the question typed by the user into the box provided.
Maybe more searchers are now seeing it?
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Programming Note: I am offline for Passover, this post was written on Thursday, April 25th and scheduled to be posted on Friday, April 26th.
