Has Google stopped obeying the NOSNIPPET META tag?

[jamesa]

I don't know when this might have started... I have some domains that have been untouched for at least 6 months or more that have <META NAME="GOOGLEBOT" CONTENT="NOSNIPPET"> in the HEAD section of the HTML. I just noticed Google is showing snippets. Anyone else seeing this?

[drbrain]

NOSNIPPET is not listed here:

[google.com...]

[jamesa]

It's here: [google.com...]

[Lord Majestic]

You might as well not get listed - who would click on your link without snippet where as everyone else will have it? I know I would not unless its the only URL to check.

[piskie]

Calls for confidence in 'Writing a compelling Title Tag'

[Lord Majestic]

When I see rare URL without snippet my thinking is that there is nothing there that I was looking for - there is usually plenty of choice, so why would I waste my time trying my luck by clicking on URL that is has less chances of showing me what I want than other URLs with snippers indicating they do have something I want?

Would be interesting to run a test to check conversion to click for the same URL with and without snippet, Google certainly did that and it would be nice if they released some research results. I am convinced that URLs without snippets would attract less clicks unless they were like one of a few (one page max) available results in the first place.

[jamesa]

But having the ability to remove the snippet is an essential feature. For example if you inadvertently exposed some sensitive data on a site then you won't want that hanging around in the snippet. Another example are pages whose content changes daily where an old snippet might make people think the page is stale.

The real question is why are they now ignoring this meta tag - glitch or ____?

[Lord Majestic]

For example if you inadvertently exposed some sensitive data on a site then you won't want that hanging around in the snippet.

You can remove URL completely, or you can remove snippet (and cache) and after that happens you can re-enable snippets so that after next crawl it will have snippet.

[jamesa]

The snippets are gone now... hmm