Yahoo Begins Showing Featured Snippets, But Yahoo Answers Only Source

Yahoo has finally jumped on board the featured snippet bandwagon and has followed both Google’s lead by now showing their own version of featured snippets in their search results.  But these differ from Google’s version in one major way… the source.

Yahoo has decided to only use Yahoo Answers as the only source for their featured snippets.  So unless a website happens to be promoted within the Yahoo Answer, it is simply a push to drive more traffic to Yahoo Answers instead of another website that might have even better information.

Here is how it appears in the Yahoo search results.

By comparison, here is Google’s version for the same query.

This shows that Google is superior at these types of results, but but also raises the question about whether Yahoo Answers is an ideal source to be pulling information from for featured snippets.

They also seem to be at the top of the search results, although underneath the ads at the top of the search results.

There are many examples of hilarious, but outright wrong, answers cluttering up Yahoo Answers, some which rank pretty well in Google.

So Yahoo definitely lacks a filter for the type of Yahoo Answers that routinely end up on Imgur showcasing ridiculous questions.  But since they pull from both Google and Bing search results, there is easily the opportunity for them to use those featured snippets instead of using the opportunity to drive traffic to Yahoo Answers.  However, with how ad-heavy Answers is, it could also be a conscious decision for more ad revenue.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post

Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing. 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, ClickZ and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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