Your desktop Google search results probably look a little different today. The search giant is changing the AdWords inventory available on the results pages of its global search, taking ads off the right-hand side of the display. It is also increasing the number of AdWords placements above native search results.
Various news sources are reporting the change, which, according to SearchEngineLand.com, are the result of testing that stretches back to 2010.
With the removal of this right-hand-side inventory, Google now plans to place four AdWords results atop search results on popular searches. Previously, it only published three results in this space.
So, for the time being, only two kinds of objects will now populate the space to the right of search results: product listing ad boxes that show images and detailed information about a given product, or knowledge panels that can aggregate product, map and user review data and are not paid-for results (see image, right).
In a statement to AdAge, Google said “We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries. We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers.”
