Google Search Is Getting Rich Cards, Starting With Recipes And Movies On mobile

Above: The evolution of mobile search results on Google. Image Credit: Google Google today detailed a new format in which it’s displaying certain types of content in search results. The new “rich cards,” which are designed to provide a better experience on mobile devices, are being rolled out first for movies and recipes, initially in English and only in mobile search results through google.com. Rich cards are “building on the success of rich snippets,” Na’ama Zohary on Google’s search console team and Elliott Ng, Google’s search ecosystem product management director, wrote in a blog post. Rich snippets, which date back to 2009, aren’t going anywhere, Google says — but both use structured markup schemas from Schema.org, which Google collaborates on alongside Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex. Google has been doing more and more to optimize its mobile search presence. For instance, Google kickstarted the open-source AMP project, which makes news articles show up very quickly on mobile when people tap on them from Google search results. The horizontal “carousel” presentation resembles the way Facebook Messenger has been letting some chatbots display certain content horizontally and not just vertically. Now the Internet’s biggest search engine, not just a popular messaging app, is more interactive — you scroll sideways, not just up and down, to find what you want. Google has updated its Structured Data Testing Tool to help Web developers understand how content will show up with the new format and fix errors as necessary. Webmasters can also use the new Search Console Rich Cards report to get a sense of how many of their cards have been “fully enhanced.” Plus, Google has also begun a closed beta for a new “rich results” filter in Google Analytics. Documentation shows examples of rich cards for events, products, and reviews, so it would be natural to see cards for them in search results next. More information: Google Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google ... All Google news » Track Google's Landscape to stay on top of the industry. Access the entire ecosystem, track innovation & deals. Learn more.