Google is testing placing a “quick view” button overlayed on the images on recipes within Google Search. The crazy part is that clicking on “Quick view” keeps you on Google while giving you a snapshot of the content from the publisher, without sending that traffic to the publisher.
Looking at this “Quick view” page, I don’t see any reason why a searcher would want to dig any deeper and go to the publisher’s website. So much for the swiss army knife analogy that Google has given about its search results. Here Google is not giving you a snippet of information, encouraging the searcher to click over to the publishers site. Instead, Google is serving you the whole toolkit right on a silver platter.
Tom Critchlow pinged me about this and I was able to replicate this in one of my tests. Here is a GIF showing the quick view button and then what happens after you click on it:
Tom told me, “Google is completely hijacking the site click to provide a “quick view” experience.” “It appears to be extracting most of the content on the page including page content, images and comments,” he added.
Here is a static image of the quick view button on the recipe listings:
Then when you click on it, you stay on Google.com and Google summarizes the key points of the recipe. Sure, there is a visit site button but do you need to visit the site?
I am sure many recipe bloggers will not be happy about this. And if this expands to other industries, this is just not good for publishers. Sure, it is a good Google user experience but this is not your content to take Google.
I should note that a dozen years ago, Google had a similar feature named Quick View as well, that it officially launched and then pulled down a year later.
Forum discussion at X.
Update: A Google spokesperson sent us the following statement but I did ask for clarification if this means they are paying publishers or not. Here is the statement:
We’re always experimenting with different ways to connect our users with high-quality and helpful information. We have partnered with a limited number of creators to begin to explore new recipe experiences on Search that are both helpful for users and drive value to the web ecosystem. We don’t have anything to announce right now.