Alternate Searches Box on Page 2 of Google.co.uk Serps?

Is Google trying out a new feature?

[willbl]

Go to google.co.uk and search for anything. On page 2 of the serps, between results 5 & 6, there is a massive box with 4 alternate search terms and the top three results for each term. Doesn't seem to be on google.com yet. Have other people noticed this?

[tedster]

I can't see it, and it certainly does seem odd to add something extra to page 2.

Have you checked your system for "adware' recently? This sounds like a common adware ploy (except for the fact that something is usually added to page 1 also.)

[mack]

What browser are you using?

Mack.

[Dayo_UK]

Are the results better than normal Google?

[willbl]

It’s strange, it has gone now but I am using a different computer. The computer I was using at the time was running IE 6 I think but it wasn’t my comp so not sure.

I guess this means it probably was adware but it is strange because it wasn’t promoting anything in particular. The box simply showed 4 related alternate searches and under each it showed the top three results for that search. If I typed in ‘widget’ for example it would show alternate searches: ‘widget shop’ and the top 3 results for that search, ‘widget events’, etc... The alternate searches looked like the sort of suggestions that come up when you type a term into google suggest.

Could this be adware? Or was google trying out a new feature on a few random users? Another thing is that my original post was quarantined until a moderate had checked it out so you guys might have read this a couple of hours after I original posted it.

Tomorrow I will check again on the computer I saw it on and that should settle it.

Dayo – The results were relevant but to be honest the box did take up a lot of space and did not seem that useful to me. If I wanted ‘widget news’ I would have typed it in in the first place!

[GoogleGuy]

I believe that's an experiment we're trying. I believe one of the engineers who worked on that will be at the Meet the Google Engineers session next week, too. :)

[ciml]

> does seem odd to add something extra to page 2

I thought the same as Tedster. There's no doubt that Google have learnt the art of subtlety. :-)

[rogerd]

Presumably, if you have to click to Page 2, your initial search didn't do as well as you hoped... hence the alternate searches. Clever.

[dmorison]

Caught a screenshot - sticky if you're interested or if a mod could let me know if it's OK to post it...