Rich Snippets Appear, then Disappear in SERPS

[brianp]

Noticed recently around December 3rd or so lots of Rich Snippets are appearing for our e-commerce website in the Google SERPS. It has taken almost a year for them to start showing up, and have seen them for most of the month.

As of the past 48 hours, some that were displaying now are no longer displaying. Also have noticed some show review aggregate data only, with others showing review aggregate data with product info like stock status and pricing.

Is this something anyone else is seeing? The rich snippets resulted in nearly 30% increase in Google click-thrus, and not knowing what we did to make them finally appear (if anything) and then seeing them start to disappear is frustrating.

Thanks!

[tedster]

Over the past week I've been seeing more rich snippets in general. I think Google has changed something about when they're willing to display rich snippets - in the direction of more latitude.

However, I also think they're actively tweaking and adjusting the change right now. As another thread here mentioned, there are more than a few ways to game rich snippets (especially ratings) and Google needs to watch out for snippet spammers!

[Robert Charlton]

brianp - I think that rich snippets appearing and then disappearing might be a continuation of the testing we've been seeing with Google search "refinements" over time. Note in this discussion....

Bullet Points in SERP description, is that new?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4355288.htm [webmasterworld.com]

...that the reported bullet points seen by all in late August vanished by mid-November. Could this also be happening with rich snippets?

What are you currently seeing?

[Marshall]

I know for my one client, the rich snippets come and go without any logical reason/pattern. Some times there is nothing, then just the review, then the review and product information, then just the product information. Honestly, I gave up trying to figure Google out. I can say this factually, my client does not "game" the snippets, so it cannot be that.

And for what it is worth, the reviews are through Google Products, so you really cannot alter them.

Marshall