Features

Several elements, known as SERP features, have been incorporated into the SERP to enhance its functionality. These features attempt to deliver answers to the search query and assist users in the search process rather than just linking to websites that may contain the desired information, as textual results do.

Although the enriched elements of the textual results can also be considered features according to Google’s documentation on this topic, this work adopts a classification approach aligned with the existing literature. Specifically, we define SERP features as unpaid enhancements the search engine provides to improve the search experience, whose formats are different from the textual listing format.

Exploration Features

Exploration features are a category of SERP features that help users explore more questions, searches, or topics related to their original search query. Below are presented all the identified features categorized as exploration features.

Zero-Click Answers

Zero-Click Answers, also referred to as Answer Modules, are features designed to provide brief and informative responses to a user’s search query, delivering immediate answers without requiring users to click on any search results. Multiple features of this category are described in the following sections.

Direct Answers

Direct Answers, also known as Answer Boxes, are a type of Zero-Click SERP feature designed to provide concise, instant responses to search queries. These answers are often displayed in a widget format, sometimes allowing user interaction. The information presented in Direct Answers may be originated from the search engine’s knowledge graph or from trusted data partners. Below are presented the direct answers identified.

WhenIs Box

Also known as Brief Answer, this feature provides quick answers on topics such as past or upcoming holidays and events, famous people, movies, sports, or places.

Currency Converter

For currency conversion queries, search engines display a built-in currency converter directly on the results page.

General Converter

For various unit conversion queries, search engines display a built-in general converter directly on the results page.

Nutrition Box

It helps assess the nutritional values of food, including calorie count, based on different portion sizes.

Dictionary Box

It displays word definitions, along with their form, phonetic pronunciation, and sometimes an audio clip for pronunciation.

Sports Box

Presents a sports team's, player's, or championship's upcoming schedule, recent performance, highlights, standings, and overall record in multiple formats.

Stock Box

Displays stock market information, including current prices, changes, and trends for various stocks and indices.

Weather Box

It shows information about the current weather and upcoming weather forecast for a specific location.

Translation Box

It shows an automatic translation of a word or short phrase, allowing users to switch between languages and often includes an audio clip for pronunciation.

Math Calculator

It performs mathematical calculations, displaying the results directly in the search results page.

$Example for Baidu$

Math Solver

Presents the solution for a mathematical problem and a list of websites where the user can find solutions for the problem.

$Example for Google$

Date and Time

Displays the current date and time for a specific location.

SOS Alert

Displays an emergency alert with important information and instructions during a crisis or disaster.

Population Chart

Displays a chart showing the population statistics for a specific region or country.

Map

Displays the map for a specific location or area.

Color Picker

Allows users to select and explore colors.

Timer

A timer is displayed, providing users with a countdown function.

Calendar

A calendar for a specific month is displayed, highlighting the holidays within that month.

Horoscope

Horoscope predictions are displayed for different time periods.

Poem

A Chinese poem is displayed directly on Baidu's results page.

Quotes

Searching for classic quotes from famous philosophers will trigger a widget that displays their most well-known quotes.

Health Panel

Provides users with quick access to medical information, including a brief summary of the condition, along with details of symptoms, treatments, and medications.

Zip Code Enquiry

A zip code lookup feature that utilizes an API from the China Postal Data Media Center to retrieve postal code information.

Featured Snippets

Featured snippets are a short summary extracted from a website that the search engine considers to be the most contextually relevant to the search query. It is made up of a snippet of the actual content of the selected website along with its URL and is displayed at the top of the results page.

Featured snippets can appear in various formats. Some display information as a list or bullet points, while others utilize tables or provide a short paragraph. Additionally, some featured snippets include videos, and others include images alongside the text. Examples of these formats are shown below.

Paragraph Featured Snippet

List or Bullet Points Featured Snippet

Featured Snippet with Images

Quick Answers

Another Zero-Click SERP feature that shares a similar structure as Feature Snippets, often showing a paragraph snippet associated with a URL and sometimes accompanied by images. However, in addition to the snippet, Quick Answers have a larger heading at the top that directly answers the search query, as seen below. In this study, we adopted the terminology used by Yandex to name this feature.

Table Featured Snippet

AI Overview

AI Overview, the term adopted by Google, is another Zero-Click feature in which search engines use artificial intelligence (AI) to generate structured responses for users. AI compiles relevant information from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive response, and in most cases, the website sources are listed in the results. This feature typically appears below the sponsored results if there are any present or at the top of the SERP. It is usually displayed in a container with a background colour distinct from the SERP’s default background colour.

In addition, another approach exists in which the response is provided only by the AI chatbot knowledge. In this case, aside from providing the requested information, the search engine can provide custom responses, such as helping plan meals for the week and offering step-by-step instructions for a specific task.

The AI Overview feature is present in all six search engines analyzed. However, in Yandex it is only available in Russia.

Carousels

The Carousel feature typically appears above organic results at the top of the results page. It consists of a horizontal row of results from the same category, sometimes navigable via left and right arrows. Each carousel item is usually composed of an image and a corresponding label. Clicking on an item triggers a new search results page, with the search query being the selected item. This feature was identified across all six search engines analyzed.

Carousel

Furthermore, a variation of the Carousel feature exists, referred to as Carousel Grid, Large Carousel, or Found on the Web. Unlike the standard Carousel, this version presents smaller and simpler cards arranged in a matrix rather than a single row. Each card may or may not include an image thumbnail. This feature was observed on Google and Bing, consistently positioned below the search query bar and above the textual results.

Carousel Grid

Another variation of the Carousel feature available on Google is known as Compare Sites. This feature allows users to compare sites via a carousel. For example, when searching for a hotel in addition to traditional results and a hotel pack, Google displays a carousel of sites alongside traditional results, helping users easily explore and compare options.

Compare Sites

Knowledge Panel

Knowledge Panels are information boxes that appear on the SERP when searching for entities like people, places, organizations, or things featured in the search engine’s knowledge graph. These panels provide a concise topic overview based on the search engine’s understanding of the content. The information displayed comes from various online sources, including publicly available data and licensed content, offering users quick access to key facts without navigating away from the results page.

This feature typically appear in two distinct formats. The original format consists of a panel on the right side of the results page that is made up of the title, images of the subject, a URL if applicable, a summary paragraph, often sourced from Wikipedia, and a structured list of direct information. Depending on the search engine, more information can be included, such as related searches. Additionally, a newer format positions the knowledge panel at the top of the SERP. In this layout, information is divided into colored boxes, and a related-subtopics menu allows users to filter the displayed information based on the selected subtopic. The classic right-side format is present across the six search engines analyzed, although Baidu’s version differs slightly because it integrates the panel within the SERP results and is powered by Baidu’s version of Wikipedia. The top-panel format was identified on Bing, Google, Yahoo! and Yandex.

Knowledge Panel

Knowledge Panel Top

Image and Video Packs

The Image Pack and the Video Pack are two SERP features designed to present sets of images and videos, respectively.

The Image Pack typically appears for search queries where visual content is relevant and beneficial to the user. It displays a collection of images related to the search query, often accompanied by a button to see all images, which redirects users to a dedicated image search results page.

Image Pack

The Video Pack can take on various formats, including a carousel, a vertical list of videos, or a grid layout. Each video item includes a thumbnail, the video’s duration, title, source website, and upload date. Like the Image Pack, the Video Pack includes a “See all videos” button leading to additional video content. Furthermore, Google and Yandex offer an advanced feature within the Video Pack that allows users to preview and navigate to the most important moments of a video before watching it. This functionality lets users start watching the video directly in the relevant sections.

Video Pack

This section presents the SERP features associated with specific topics and some of these features are grouped into subtypes as they belong to the same topic.

Recipe Cards

Recipe Cards are a collection of recipes, where each recipe card is linked to the source website. These cards often include elements such as a thumbnail image or video, the name of the hosting blog, a rating score, total cooking and preparation time, calories per serving, and a brief list of ingredients. Similar to the image and video packs, this feature also has a “see more” button.

Shopping Features

In the SERP, there are non-sponsored features designed to assist users in purchasing products, called the shopping features. One example is Popular Products, a feature from Google, with a similar version identified on Bing during this analysis. This feature displays products related to a user’s search query when relevant, including images, prices, ratings, and links to the corresponding product pages. It typically appears when users search for a specific product category or brand.

House Pack

Another Topic-Related feature is the House Pack. It is a SERP feature that presents a list of houses for sale in a specific location, along with details such as the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and the total property size. Similar to the Local Pack, it includes a map below the listings with pinned locations, displaying property prices. Additionally, users can filter results based on price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and house type. This feature was identified exclusively on Bing.

Jobs

The Jobs SERP feature provides job listings related to the search query, aiming to help users efficiently explore job opportunities directly from the search results. On Google, users can save job postings, revisit them later, and follow specific searches to receive notifications. Additionally, Google may automatically extract and present details like benefits, contract type, and health insurance from the website descriptions. Furthermore, on Bing, the Jobs SERP feature includes filters for posting time and job type, allowing users to refine their search by criteria such as part-time or full-time positions.

Three news-related features were identified during the analysis: the Top Stories, the Latest From Boxes, and the Article Boxes. These features aim to provide users with the latest news articles relevant to their search queries.

Discussions and Forums

The Discussions and Forums, another Topic-related feature, highlights relevant discussions related to the search query from forum platforms such as Quora and Reddit. It typically appears for search queries that seek advice, recommendations, or personal experiences, such as “best training shoes for wide feet”.

Datasets

Datasets is a Google SERP feature designed to help users find publicly available datasets for research or analysis. This feature retrieves and lists the results of Google’s dataset search, which indexes data from various online repositories, making it easier to locate relevant datasets directly from the search results.

Yahoo! has a financial platform called Yahoo! Finance, which aggregates news, data, and tools to assist users in making financial decisions. As a result, Yahoo! directly incorporates Finance-related features from Yahoo! Finance into its results pages when relevant. In this analysis, two such features were identified,

Finance Markets

Provides an overview of the stock market, highlighting key indices and trending companies along with their performance metrics.

Company Financials

Presents detailed financial statistics about a company, including stock prices, market capitalization, and other relevant metrics.

How to Get There

How to Get There is a SERP feature designed to help users find the best routes to a specific location. It allows users to select their preferred mode of transportation and provides estimated travel time and distance to the destination.

Songs

Songs is a SERP feature that lists songs related to the search query. Typically, it provides information such as the song title, artist name, and an image thumbnail associated with the track.

Search Engine Products

Search engines may display ads for their own products and services. We consider these features rather than sponsored results, as they are designed by the search engine itself to induce growth rather than being externally sponsored. During this analysis phase, three types of self-promotion ads were identified. The first is Advertise Here Ad, which encourage potential advertisers to place ads on the search engine.

Advertise Here Ad

Secondly, an Ad promoting a Bing product, specifically the Microsoft Bing Real Estate platform, was identified. This type of ad directs users to Bing’s real estate services.

Bing Real Estate Ad

Finally, a Baidu ad facilitating access to professional legal services through Baidu’s dedicated platform was also observed. This feature helps users find legal assistance directly from the search results pages.

Baidu Legal Services Ad

Search Engine Notes

Textual notes typically appear on the results page and are sometimes accompanied by links to web pages explaining their presence. During this analysis, four types of notes were identified.

Note on Omitted Results

Informs users that certain results have been omitted due to data protection regulations or applicable laws, ensuring compliance with regional legal requirements.