Recent Weird Google Search Interface Bugs

Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen a few recent complaints about weird interface bugs in Google Search. To be honest, I know some of these are browser extension related and thus not a Google bug, but an extension changing the Google Search interface. But I found them interesting and wanted to share them – in case you see them yourself.

Paid on Left; Free on Right

Navah Hopkins posted on Twitter a Google Search interface that shows the paid results on the left and the organic results on the right. It has to be a bug, there is no way Google would show organic results in the search results without making you first scroll past the paid results 🥁.

Here is the screen shot from Navah (click to enlarge):

Danny Sullivan from Google said “Almost certainly a bug, I’ll pass it on, thanks.”

Featured Snippets Misplaced

Alice Roussel spotted a featured snippet placement that was overlaying other search results on the page. It just looked off and she later confirmed it was being triggered by an ahrefs Chrome plugin.

Here is the screenshot she shared on Twitter (click to enlarge):

Double Overlayed Query in Search Box

Kristine Schachinger posted on Twitter that Google is messing with her eyes and overlaying the query on top of itself in the search bar. This seems like some weird browser extension is messing around as well, but who knows.

Here is the screenshot she shared (click to enlarge):

I love these weird Google user interface quirks – makes you realize how much searchers depend on clean and easy to read Google Search and when they don’t get it, it can be frustrating.

Forum discussion at Twitter.