Mark Traphagen posted on Google+ that Google started dropping a lot of the Google+ elements you'd find in the Google Knowledge Box on the right hand side of the page.
UPDATE: This was just a bug on Google's end, see details below.
For example, here is the old search result layout, with the knowledge graph box promoting the National Geographic Google+ posts and encouraging users to follow them on Google+:
Now for the same search, you get very little, to no Google+ information, depending on the brand and where Google finds the logo:
A search for my name now dropped off all the Google+ data, with the exception of the picture, which is taken from my Google profile:
Before, it looked like this with recent Google+ posts, follow him, circle count, etc.
And a search for [matt cutts] has no box at all anymore, which is strange.
There may or may not be a difference for people when they search signed in or not, but I am seeing this de-Google+ clutterization (made that up) happening both signed in and out.
Forum discussion at Google+.
Update: Google told us this was just a bug and that the follow button never showed for signed out users (but I was signed in during my tests btw). Google said:
- Since last night signed-out users haven't been seeing brands' recent G+ posts in the right-hand panel. But it's just a bug; our exterminators are on it.- The 'Follow' button in fact wasn't shown to signed-out users before (and it still isn't).
