SERPS and Rich Snippets - is Google playing favorites?

[Marshall]

I do keyword searches for my sites like everyone else I'm sure. While checking for some of the e-commerce sites, I noticed that Google only returns Rich Snippets (seller ratings, availability, price, etc.) for Amazon, and occasionally eBay, and no one else, even though I know factually that many of the sites, mine included, have Rich Snippets and are even "verified" publishers.

Is this a case of the format used (schema.org vs data-vocabulary.org vs rdf.data-vocabulary.org) or is G playing favorites?

And in regards to formats, anyone know which is preferred as I have yet to find a clear answer. When G shows an example, they show this:
"<div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Product">"

But then on another page they state they only recognize RDFa data:
"<div xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#" typeof="v:Person">"

Maybe use both and hope for the best.

<side>This is enough to make you freak'n nuts</side>

Marshall

[garyr_h]

They do use it for many others, just not the same way for everyone. For example, quite a few show dates beside the links, that is technically a rich snippet. Also, anyone can do the author snippet. I have also noticed a few other snippets within my industry.

I believe you are talking specifically about the e-commerce snippets, though, and I think that has a lot do with brand strength.

As to your question about which G prefers, I haven't seen any sort of "favorites." I have used both and they both work fine.

I do, however, suggest using Google's rich snippet validator and be sure to follow their guidelines to the letter. If *anything* is off, it simply won't work.

[Marshall]

I am talking specifically about e-commerce sites. The one I manage for one of my clients has used Rich Snippets for quite a while, <div itemscope itemtype="http://data-vocabulary.org/Product"> format. It validates with the Rich Snippet tool, has a verified publisher, and my client jump through all of Google's hoops with G+ as per their recommendations. Also my client has surpassed the minimum number of Google Seller Reviews required to have that in the results. The snippets are not hidden and, in fact, up until about early January, did appear in SERPs, as did ones from sites which are her direct competition.

At first, I thought I did something to mess it up as I redesigned the navigation to be more mobile friendly. However, as I would do my usual keywords tests, I noticed fewer and fewer sites displaying snippets save for Amazon. As I brought up in another thread, I have long noticed that Amazon curiously ranks in the top 2 to 3 SERP results regardless and have long suspected that G is playing favorites when it comes to e-commerce results. Now it seems, the only time I see any kind of snippet, usually seller ratings, is in AdWword results.

Marshall