Google appears to be testing the use of favicons within the top stories carousel in search results.
Favicons are appearing for some users in desktop search results next to the website name, similar to how they appear in browser tabs.
Here’s an example of a test that was spotted earlier today.
It looks like @Google just added favicons to Top Stories pic.twitter.com/nVBtrBBryz
— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) February 13, 2019
I could not replicate this test. Here’s what the top stories carousel looks like for me with a similar query.
Jon Henshaw chimed in several hours later noting that he’s no longer able to replicate the test either.
Google giveth and Google taketh away. I can't replicate it on my other computer so I'm thinking it's a test.
— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) February 13, 2019
Google never stops testing different ways to display search results, and it’s always interesting when one of the tests is spotted in the wild.
Whether Google decides to make one of its tests a permanent fixture in search results typically depends on how users respond to it.
For example, if more users click on results with favicons compared to results without favicons, then Google may display them more often.
In the past, Google has tested the use of favicons in regular search results snippets.
It’s much less common to see favicons appear in the top stories carousel.
