Google Search is now grouping some of its Top Stories sections for some queries by topics. This was working on mobile for a while but is now reportedly working for the desktop Top Stories Google Search results.
Here is a screenshot for a query on [biden] where Google Search on desktop is showing a topic section for abortion articles and a topic section for the US military in Europe. You can click on the image to enlarge or check it out yourself for that query.
Yes, the layout is now new, it is from December 2021 but the topics on desktop search is new according to Shalom Goodman, who is a news SEO and would know this.
He shared more screenshots on Twitter:
(SEO)
— Shalom Goodman (@ShalomGood) June 29, 2022
**New Google Test**
Google seems to be testing (or implementing) a new two topic carousel for Desktop as well.
I’ve never seen this before on desktop.
They’ve been doing it lots in mobile, but never in Desktop.
Very neat and, in my opinion, needed
Cc @rustybrick pic.twitter.com/C4BhktdwoR
It makes sense to group some queries by topics for the Top Stories section.
Also, I wasn't sure if this was new, but the "Topics In News" section on the right is supposedly new:
Google added "Topic in news" section in top of knowledge graph. pic.twitter.com/GQReDvBkgj
— Punit (@Punit6008) May 16, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.