Looks like Google has been busy updating Google Places and their integration into organic search results.

So what’s changed in the search results? (click on the image to expand)

• You can see there are new pins being displayed in the organic search results
• The appearance of the local results have now changed and take up even more of the organic landscape
• The Map has changed shape
• When you hover over locations on the map the pin lights up in the search results (see below)

If you’re logged in you can expand the local listing which then pushes PPC ad’s right down and displays everything on one page – pretty smooth looking (click on the image to expand):

Thumbnails in Google SERPS for images and videos is something that has been used by SEO’s for a number of years to help improve click through rates. The gradual evolution of the Google landscape is constantly changing and this morning I noticed videos being displayed in an unusual way for a generic term.

Previously video listings from YouTube had looked like the screen shot below:

However this is what I’ve started to see:

This is something that i’ve seen for a long time but for generic terms I’ve not seen videos displayed this way – potential Google test?