Google Tests Dropping First Organic if it's a Featured Snippet in SERPs

[engine]

There are reports going round that Google is dropping the result from organic from the featured snippet.
I haven't been able to see the test, but, perhaps others have.

[thesempost.com...]
[seroundtable.com...]

ADDED [webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: engine at 7:49 am (utc) on May 16, 2017]

[keyplyr]

Guess we'll see less of Wikipedia :)

[browndog]

I think that's a good idea.

[NickMNS]

What if they are pulling the snippet from two sources?

[lucy24]

You mean that when you do a search for information, the first two things on the SERP will be from two different sites? Ooh. I'm there.

[keyplyr]

when you do a search for information, the first two things on the SERP will be from two different sites?

Imagine that

[NickMNS]

@lucy24, No, when the featured snippet takes the text from one site and the image from another.

As reported here:
[seroundtable.com...]

[Robert Charlton]

...when the featured snippet takes the text from one site and the image from another

We've got sort of a discussion on that here...

Mashed Up Featured Snippet w/ Links to 2 Different Sites
https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4844393.htm [webmasterworld.com]

I haven't seen the result dropped from organic, but even if no one had reported it, it would seem likely that somewhere Google would be testing it. I mean, if you were Google, could you resist trying to see how dropping the result from organic might affect things?

It makes my head hurt to think how they might evaluate a test where text and image came from separate sources. I'm thinking it would depend a lot on the type of image.

[Shaddows]

I would be willing to bet that answer box images will not affect organic ranking. Images are "typical" whereas the text purports to be definitive.

I wonder if the recent move to populate the box from lower-ranked sites is related to this.

(I'm still seeing the snippet site being returned organically)

[tangor]

In an ideal world, the answerbox would be the "entry" and not appear below. but I'm not seeing that... then again g is famous for rolling these tests out in different areas for short periods of time. I wonder what is their metric for enough testing to extrapolate how it will work web wide? Example, most "political" polls work from numbers in the 1000 to 2000 sample range +/- 3-4% error for 130M-200M (USA voting population)

[samwest]

In an ideal world, the Shop for "search term" on Google, Answer Box and Images would all be on their own tab. Likewise, Videos and News would be on their own tab. It the real world that makes no money for Goog, so they own everything above the fold and do what they want. All Google needs to do is add one or two more of their "widgets" and those pesky money grubbing organic results can be a thing of the past, relegated to page two and beyond.

[Shaddows]

In an ideal world, the Shop for "search term" on Google, Answer Box and Images would all be on their own tab

Only in a webmasters' ideal. Users like blended results- just watch normal people use Google. They love video and image.

Similarly, they like their answer directly in search- it gives them instant gratification without having to click through to results (many pub / bar discussions are settled this way, for example)

If Google can nail query intent, I would fully expect them to only return 2 or 3 organic results, as users do also like finding stuff in search engines. But somewhere between 7-9 results will be irrelevant to them so could be eliminated.

Not endorsing, just observing what a profit-driven company can do to maximise profits while satisfying users

[sem4u]

I haven't seen any snippets, where the organic result has been dropped as well (UK travel).