Google for as long as I can remember showed answers for basic questions. Questions like what is the weather, what is 1+1 and so forth.
Now, Google is answering more complex questions with more more detailed responses.
The community is now noticing these changes, and I covered it at Search Engine Land yesterday. Here are some examples.
although, [who killed jfk] did not work.
although, spelling Reagan correctly did not bring up the answer.
Any my favorite one is [what is SEO]:
This reminds me of the days where we tried optimizing for Google Definitions.
Forum discussion at Twitter.