The Seer team keeps a running document of Google's search features and quirks, which we collectively update whenever we spot something new. This helps us identify trends in features that Google is testing and provide our partners with up-to-date information about the search landscape.Here are the new Google Search features we spotted in August 2017 and what it could mean for your brand.New loan calculatorIn early August, a member of Seer's team noticed that Google was generating its own version of a loan calculator for the term "car loan calculator." I did a little more research and it seems there are similar queries like "home loan calculator" but not for queries like a more general "loan calculator" or terms like "loan calculator school”.The calculator appears below the ads but above the organic results, and allows searchers to enter their loan amount, interest rate, and charging period to determine the monthly payment cost. They also provide a section option where searchers can determine the maximum loan they are eligible for by entering the monthly payment they can afford, the desired interest rate, and the term of the loan.This update was initially identified on August 3 and is available on desktop and mobile.What does it mean? We haven't seen any articles written about this new feature or any announcements made by Google regarding relevant updates, but if this feature persists, it may expand to other loan applications. If your business or client has a loan calculator on their site, this could lower the CTR on those pages, as users will most likely see this above the organic results.Different featured snippets for mobileOne of our team members noticed that searches on mobile returned different featured snippets results than on desktop. Google was also changing the “People Also Ask” section with different results for mobile and desktop. This feature was originally identified on August 8 for the "Best Disney Luxury Resort for Families" query. However, the difference between the featured snippets and the AAP was not triggering at the time of writing, indicating that this may have been a brief test or was not intended only to a limited number of users.
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