Google Test? Just 4 Organic Results In SERPS

12
September 27, 2010 // Internet Fun, Search Engines

I know there are plenty of tests going on with Google at the moment but the latest one I discovered is quite surprising. Only 4 organic search results being listed with only 2 PPC results on the right, not the top.

I took a screen grab (see below):

The result happened when I was logged in to Google, searched through Google instant in the UK – let me know if anyone replicates?



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12 Comments

  1. John September 28, 2010 at 11:30 am

    Not for me – Logged in to google.com and I see what I’d expect to see – 10 results, normal sponsored links, etc.

  2. harvey September 28, 2010 at 12:07 pm

    PPC results on the left??? Not the top or right?

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  4. Daryl Clark September 28, 2010 at 4:53 pm

    Glad to see your post. I thought I was going crazy yesterday. Not only did I get four results but there were no more choices beyond four at the bottom of the page (number 1 – 10).

    I turned off Google instant and it hasn’t happened again. Interesting to see what others will say too.

    Cheers!

  5. DiscoStu September 28, 2010 at 6:02 pm

    does make sense. With instant the foucs is shifted towards the first results, and fewer and fewer people are probably scrolling down

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  7. admin September 29, 2010 at 2:58 am

    @ Harvey – that was a typo, well spotted :)

  8. Andy Langton September 29, 2010 at 5:18 am

    This looks like a bug to me (I experienced it too). The related searches for “classic fm” at the bottom are the clue. I saw four results for “classic films” but clicking “next” in results shows SERPs for “classic FM”.

    I think Google Instant has some bugs that need to be ironed out!

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  10. Cijo Abraham Mani October 11, 2010 at 2:26 pm

    I have also seen similar results in Google.com when I searched for “alfred lim”. The same is posted in my blogpost.

    http://cijo.i.ph/blogs/cijo/2010/10/12/just-noticed-only-4-organic-results-in-google-serps/

  11. Mohan Arun L. October 20, 2010 at 11:44 pm

    I noticed this day before yesterday – for me, there were only 4 results displayed with no visible pagination or even ads – it was as if the http connection was cut in the middle. It does make sense though – for some queries, like ‘facebook login’, consumer expects to click only 1 of the leading 4-5 results. so display only 4-5 results?
    I have made a note of it here.
    http://mohanarun.com/oct-20-2010/

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