Google is testing a brand new style of featured snippets, this time showing the regular featured snippet at the top of the search results, while also including an additional expandable section that pulls the type of data we normally see in the regular knowledge panels in the right sidebar.  This includes things like facts, related topics, and people also search for.

Here is how it displays unexpanded.

It does include the additional “Sources include: EOL” which is not displayed in typical featured snippets.  But it is the content in the expanded section that seems to come from EOL.   Here it is showing the expanded facts section.

Here is another example, although this one is missing the “Sources include” section.

However, when you expand it, it not only includes additional facts, but the “people also search for” thumbnails – a feature we normally see in the right sidebar knowledge panels.

Here is another example, this time with “Related topics” in the expanded section.

They are also doing something in the right side bar as well, with the expandable option, but these don’t include the addition of “Sources include” below.

We have seen them showing this expanded right sidebar for local results as well.  We have seen the expandable sections for some of the new book features, but they were merely knowledge cards and not featured snippets.

It definitely seems as though they are bringing some of the usual right side knowledge panel features into featured snippets in the new expandable areas.  They don’t seem to trigger in featured snippets very often, so it is possible that they are testing this with a small number of queries.

It also raises the question about whether this will affect the CTR rate of those websites that are in the featured snippets.  Will users still click through as before, or will they expand for more details and not end up clicking through?  With many website owners concerned about how the featured snippets affect CTR, it will be something that those with featured snippets will want to keep an eye on, especially if they start displaying these new expanded areas.