More than half of all Google searches no longer leave Google. What does this mean for the user and the website environment?
It has recently come to light that one in two users who search on Google either find what they are looking for without having to click on a specific result or end up finding that result… via a Google tool.
In other words: about half of all Google searches do not generate a single click to any website. Google shows us the answers without having to go anywhere else.
When Google shows it to you… even if it’s not yours
All that information that does not generate any useful clicks to any website is shown through the so-called featured snippets. These are those little spaces that Google shows just below the search box (unless there is an ad above it, then it shows them afterwards) and most of the time they are even dynamic and we can manipulate them ourselves.
The controversy comes from the fact that Google extracts the information from websites, editors and in general third parties that have answered the user’s question… but they are left without the visit.
Here are some examples of queries on Google that end on the moment you press Enter: the search engine itself on its home page shows us what we are looking for without the need to click on any result or takes us to a Google tool.
Weather searches
Any weather-related search has little chance of leaving Google: live weather, rainfall and temperature forecasts for the whole week ahead.
Restaurant searches
There’s nothing special about the maps snippet. We use it every day for restaurants and more (as we’ll see below).
Accommodation searches
A relatively new snippet when searching for hotels and accommodation. Find a hotel without leaving Google, based on their new Google.com/travel platform.
Currency exchange searches
Google has developed a f***ing currency calculator type snippet where we can look up any currency exchange we want. Euro to peso, dollar to bitcoin… You can try any currency or cryptocurrency exchange search.
Searches for mathematical calculations
To perform a mathematical operation you no longer need to open the calculator on your PC. Just open a tab in your browser and type the operation you want to do in text. A manipulable calculator will appear as a snippet.
Searches about translations
Google couldn’t miss out on using its translation tool to put it as a snippet in its searches.
Songs lyrics queries
Looking for the lyrics of a song? Well, you don’t need to visit any specialised website: Google can already read the lyrics from that page and show them to you without you having to visit anything.
Searches about random information
Any question involving a place or a date is no longer a problem for Google. The machine will read the information from Wikipedia or any other website and it will show you the data you want to know in its own search. And if you want more information below that snippet you will have other related questions that you can answer, again… without leaving that same search results page.
Travel searches
Google Maps calculates the duration and default route to get from one place to another when you enter it correctly.
Flights status
When you search for information about an air route, Google reads the information on Flightstats to show you a snippet with the status of all the planes for that particular route, for as many days as you want.
