Description on ATW serps - moving away from the ODP?

[heini]

There have been questions and comments lately about the connection between ODP and ATW, specifically about the descriptions ATW uses on serps.
I think ATW has chaged the way they display descriptions, and changed to the worse.

With the new index rolled out lately I keep seeing more and more Google style snippets on ATW serps. Before ATW used meta desciption and ODP descriptions much more.

Now I don't see the pattern when ODP descriptions are used and when not.

[netcommr]

are they ignoring meta disc?

I see 3 sponsored links, a news link, 2 dmoz desc(when available), then the rest from page... (for most searches)

are metas ignored?

[Jon_King]

Yes indeed. Keyword snips. Seems an on-page algo change is being tested or implemented.

[Jon_King]

>Now I don't see the pattern when ODP descriptions are used and when not.

The few serps I've checked that do not have the search term in the meta desc, do not have the meta desc included in the result.