Google typography

Hooray for better character support!

[rjohara]

I remember suggesting once before that a minor change in the Google SERP display that would make for a much cleaner appearance would be better support for some additional HTML entity references, such as apostrophes, em dashes, and the like. (These ordinarily show up as "?", which is not very elegant.)

It looks like this has been done, hooray! I am now seeing very clean typography in the SERPs, with em and en dashes, apostrophes cleanly converted, and middots. I think most of those are new, yes? Good job, Google -- just the kind of attention to detail that makes for a professional product. :)

The webmaster formerly known as R J. O?Hara

[GoogleGuy]

Thanks! We're always trying to improve. Most people don't notice the little things. :)

[vitaplease]

Nice one Googleguy,

this must be very new, or I must have some strange settings on my browser.

On one PC I see the the French "ç" correctly on others not?
Also the urls in Serps with the correct "ç" have snippets with Français

(Do a search for "français" in url.)

Also Google only shows toolbar Pagerank if the url is spelled in the /fran%C3%A7ais way. It you have the url in français spelling it shows no Pagerank?

Also mentioned in this thread: [webmasterworld.com...]

[Hagstrom]

Great. And to think that I had given up the Google tool bar.

If I search for my name, the search argument in the URL is converted into hagstr%F8m. When I click on "Next" my name in the URL is tranformed into hagstr%C3%B8m&ie=UTF-8.

But the Google bar works now! The search history and the "Finding words within a page"-buttons say "hagstrøm" and they work!
Look mum - I'm in the bar now!

Why didn't you tell us before, GoogleGuy :)

/Webmaster formerly known as hagstr%C3%B8m&ie=UTF-8 but who shall henceforth be known as hagstr%F8m.

[ciml]

> Most people don't notice the little things. :)

People don't tend to talk about the little things, but those things help people come back to you for search after search.

I can't remember the last time I heard someone compliment Google for being quick and uncluttered, but it's a significant part of the success IMO.