Google has started to test showing an article carousel beneath the knowledge panels for some authors and journalist searches, Google announced today. This is a limited beta, only works on a limited number of U.S. mobile search for some English-language journalists.
What it looks like. Here is a GIF Google shared of this feature in action:
What is it. Google will showcase some of the recent articles this author or journalist published directly within the person’s knowledge panel. Google said they are doing this to “help people learn more about an individual journalist or author by more prominently highlighting their recent work.”
Expanding soon. Google said for now this is a limited test but the company is “looking to expand the feature over time to more journalists, devices and languages” over time. Google said it might not end up looking like this, the company said it is “going to be testing out different ways of organizing the content to ensure we optimize for the best experience.”
Publishers or corrections. If you see issues with this, Google said you can submit feedback by clicking the “Feedback” button in the bottom right corner of the articles carousel. For publishers or content creators that want to see this happen for their journalists and writers, they “can help make their content more accessible and enhance their appearance in Google Search results by adding structured metadata to their article pages, including the journalist or author’s name, and bio pages for their journalists describing their expertise,” Google said.
Why we care. This is a new way for publishers to get more traction and traffic to their stories and articles. If people are searching for your more well-known journalists, showcasing their recent articles on your website might drive more traffic to your site.
About The Author
Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry’s personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.