Google has decided to show zero search results when they are confident that they are able to give answers that solve the searchers query fully. This is currently limited to many time, calculations & conversions search results. So searches that ask for math answers, what the time it is in specific locations and math conversions. Google always provides a link to “show all results,” which will lead to Google showing the search results.
When does Google hide the main search results? Google will only hide the main search results when the query is specific to time, calculations and conversions related queries. And even in some of those cases, if it is possible that Google thinks a searcher may want to get the search results, Google will default to show the search results.
For example, here is a search for [time in india]:
Compare that to [time in new york]:
Google believes that some may be searches for the New York Times and thus shows all the search results by default.
These types of zero results also come up for conversions:
And they also come up for math:
Google’s statement. Google emailed this statement about launching this feature today:
As always, our goal with search is to help people quickly find the most relevant information. For queries where we have extremely high confidence that a user is seeking a calculation, unit conversion or local time, we will show a single result to improve load time on mobile. Since our initial experiment in February, we worked to remove ads and improve the triggering quality for this experience to be sure that we’re serving users what they’re looking for, and we will still provide the option to tap to see more results.
Google tested this in March but pulled back the feature. Google tested showing no search results in their search results earlier this year back in March. There was a lot of unhappy people with the test, so Google stopped it after several days and said they will rethink these efforts.
What didn’t people like? In some cases, when Google showed zero results it lead to some brands not coming up for their own name. It also stopped dating sites from coming up for queries like [date in london]. There were many examples of where this search experiment failed and Google tried to resolve most of these.
But in the case of [date in london], it seems Google rather just give you the calendar date and not help you find a soulmate:
Why does this matter? Clearly for sites that do time conversions, help with math problems or other conversion formulas, you may now be in really bad shape. Google won’t show your site for answers without an additional click. In addition, if you try to name your new company in the format of a time, conversion or math problem – you better make sure Google is able to show search results for that query. If not, it might be a while for Google to send you any traffic for people searching on your brand name.
Thank you. We also wanted to thank Sergey Alakov for spotting this in the morning and for a Google spokesperson for responding to us on a Sunday.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land’s News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.