The SEM Post

Latest News About SEO, SEM, PPC & Search Engines

You are here: Home / Google / Google Testing Shadowed Stars in Local Search Results

Google Testing Shadowed Stars in Local Search Results

at PST By

google shadowed stars search resultsGoogle is testing a new shadowed star in their search results, this one keeping the usual yellow/orange color but adding a somewhat distracting shadow behind it.

Brian Barwig spotted the test on Friday.  This is how it looks:

shadowed stars local google

Even the placement of the shadows is a bit odd.  While a drop shadow might look okay, in this test, the shadow projects further to the left depending on how many stars the listing has.

It is unclear if this test is only for local results, or if this new style of shadowed stars would also show up in things like product reviews or recipes in the search results.

It seems to be a limited test.  I wasn’t able to replicate it and I haven’t heard from anyone else who also saw it.  I hope this one doesn’t expand further because it is a very distracting look to the search results.

The following two tabs change content below.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

Sign up for our newsletter


Comments

  1. Hi Jen,

    Thanks for the mention. I saw the shadowed results once on Friday and took a screen grab because it was interesting and awful. I tried several other times on Friday and over the weekend to replicate the results to no avail.

    This review result appears to be much like the elusive Yeti. No one would have believed me had I not captured it 😉 Thats digital marketing for you at this point, especially with G.

  2. This goes completely against any form of material design, so it would be a strange move.

  3. Maybe it is just a defective graphics card… or Google trying to fool SEOs. (I can hear them laughing about the fact that we are discussing shadowed stars)…..
    There is no sense in shadowing a star this way.