shortest SERPs I've ever seen -- 5 items

[londrum]

just done a search for a well known attraction and google has returned just five websites on the front page.
and i don't mean five websites with multiple entries each... i mean five entries in total.
the front page goes from 1 to 5, and that's it!
they've filled the rest up with google images, google news stories and a google info box

tried it with another attraction and the same thing has happened -- 5 results

tried it with a three famous hotels and got 6.

i'm guessing this is the way it's headed for everything. if you get in the top 10 these days then you might end up buried halfway down page 2

[goodroi]

I assume it was a long tail term. How many words? Google is always testing different serp layouts. Google is literally bringing new meaning to the expression "who moved my cheese?"

Google still sends a flood of free organic traffic but the traffic levels are decreasing each year. This is one of the reasons I keep exploring different traffic & sales channels. Google owes me nothing. I'll take everything I can get from Google but I'm smart enough to make sure I am not dependent on this diminishing free* traffic source.

*imho organic traffic aint really free since it takes work & resources to gain organic traffic

[londrum]

It was just two words -- the name of a very famous attraction. The same thing happens for a lot of famous attractions

[piatkow]

Just tried a selection of major UK tourist attractions (google.co.uk using FF 54.0.1) and found no problem. Ads and pictures push stuff down the page and increase scrolling but the number of organic results isn't reduced, I am getting some photos and the Google info on a separate right hand column.

EDIT - just noticed tat that the previous post was over a week ago, Something may have been fixed in the mean time.

[keyplyr]

More testing it seems. Several reports of various SERP changes in the last week.

[JS_Harris]

Google is moving from being a search engine to a directory? I suppose it makes sense for some queries. Someone typing in "Disney land" really should see the official site first. I'm not entirely surprised however, I did predict this would start happening more and more as google moved to voice results. You don't really want a voice search helper listing off 10 entries, you'd want it giving you the answer or AT MOST give you 2-3 links where it is sure you'll find the answer.

Faaaaar down the road I suspect Google will not provide serps at all, they'll provide voice answers. If you look at it that way it's not hard to predict the direction our results pages will be moving in over time.

[IamnotMattCutts]

lol ^^

[glakes]

You don't really want a voice search helper listing off 10 entries, you'd want it giving you the answer or AT MOST give you 2-3 links where it is sure you'll find the answer.

It should be interesting when there is more than one correct answer. How will Google handle product searches? We see domain crowding now, and I wonder if hearing it will make it an even better experience for the user. :) My guess is Google will pull results from their paid shopping service to make voice command purchases simple. Though I envision more fees for integrating independent sites into audio enabled feeds coming down the road.

[browndog]

I saw something similar but it was a few weeks ago. I can't remember what the search was for, but there were so few organic results in the results and from memory some domain crowding.

[MrSavage]

Google owes me nothing

Right. The start of Google was "us" and "our" websites being the attraction. If they didn't/don't have "us" or our "sites" they don't have what they have. Google was built on websites that they didn't create and information they didn't assemble. So if our websites didn't or don't exist, what are they going to list and sell ads on? What was their "product" that they had? They assembled "us". We made them what they are! Sure, after the fact there are options. But they are what they are because of "us". Owes me nothing? It's a garbage sediment. I am part of "us" as is everyone else who got or gets traffic from Google. If we get Google, then they are "using" us. Owe us for that? No websites, no Google search. Period. Owes? What the hell does that rhetoric mean?

[Writerly]

I just read this post! Have they changed it or is it still the same? It's pretty unfair, but maybe it's just Google's way of adapting to the crazy pace. People don't have time (or patience) to do a research. The top 5 results and they're good to go.

[londrum]

I suppose it's no different to the TV. How many channels do we have these days? 400? And how many do we actually watch... maybe 10. People don't always want a big choice. They're happy just sticking with what they know... amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube and the BBC, or whatever. Maybe that's how google sees it as well.

Bit depressing, really