New Google SERP Layout for Geo Terms?
This morning while doing some manual search results checks, I ran into what to me is a totally new Google SERP results layout. The overall design, as always, has not changed. What's different in the SERP's I saw was that the 'maps' listing and organic listing are now somewhat integrated. By this I mean that they are essentially listing 3 organic results, then the old '7 pack' listings disguised as organic listings, with a few extras. See the following screen shot...
One interesting thing the screen shot does not convey is that the actual map on the right, above the right sponsored listings, scrolls down as you do, masking the sponsored listings. I for one, like this, but I'm sure Adwords publishers will not. The 'Organic Maps' listing have the benefit of address and review data, as well as a Google Places 'tag'.
While I'm sure this is an experiment to see how the layout works, I kind of hope it doesn't get rolled out everywhere. A subsequent search on a different browser showed the old layout with the '7=pack'. We've seen this before by Google, as they are always experimenting with the SERPs. Oh, BTW, the search I did was for 'Chicago Movers', hence the 'Geo Term' association.