Yesterday, Google launched a new design of the stock quotes “card” at the top of its search results. The new card dropped links to competing financial websites, something Google previously had in place since 2000. But after attention was drawn to the fact, Google quietly restored the links.
Google Operating System noted the change and the drop of competitor links yesterday, as did TechCrunch. And that’s what we saw when we first posted this story at 9:22am ET today:
Compare the new card above to the old one below, and you can see how the links to competitors were removed:
Google has provided stock quotes at the top of its results for searches on stock symbols since 2000, and those quotes have included links to competitors since that time.
A few hours after our story on this originally went up, however, Google updated the new look to restore competitor links. Actually, what seems to have happened is that it went back to the old design as shown at the top of this article.
Was the new design a brief test? A reconsideration after attention was drawn to removal of competitor links? We don’t know, but we’ve asked Google for more.
Postscript: A Google spokesperson sent us a statement, “We’re always experimenting with new formats and features for answers in Search, but we don’t have anything specific to announce here.”
