Featured Snippets
Concise answer boxes displayed at the top of search results, providing quick information without requiring clicks.
Featured snippets represent Google's curated search results that display prominently at the top of search pages in a distinctive box format, earning them the nickname "position zero." These snippets aim to deliver immediate answers to user queries by extracting and highlighting relevant content from web pages.
Operating as a bridge between traditional search results and modern AI-powered responses, featured snippets demonstrate Google's shift toward providing direct information rather than simply offering a list of links. While they enhance visibility for the featured content and improve user experience through instant answers, they can also impact website traffic by satisfying user queries without requiring clicks to the original source.
This format laid the groundwork for Google's current AI overview features, representing an important step in search engine evolution from link aggregation to intelligent answer synthesis.