14 DAY TRIAL // Google is moving forward and introducing more types of rich snippets in the search results. Now, you may start noticing that app download pages include more information than regular search results, for example an average rating, the number of reviews or the price.
This info comes from microdata that websites have added to enable search engines to extract the more relevant info from the page.
"We've previously introduced rich snippets for reviews, video, events, and most recently music, to help people determine more quickly if a particular webpage has the information they're interested in," Alejandro Goyen, product panager at Google, wrote.
"Before you install a software application, you may want to check out what others think about it and how much it costs," he said.
"Starting today, you’ll be able to get information about the applications, including review and price information, right in your search results," he explained.
Already, you can start seeing the new rich snippets results for a number of app sites, including the big mobile app hubs, the iTunes Appstore and the Android Market.
More search results will include software application rich snippets as soon as websites start implementing the format and Google starts indexing and updating those pages.
Softpedia already uses the software application microformat in the download sections and you should start seeing the rich snippets results soon, just like the ones currently displayed for reviews, for example.
You can find out how to implement the feature for your site from this Google help page. You can also test if everything is in order via the Rich Snippets Testing Tool in the Google Webmaster Tools suite.
For now, only Google uses this type of microdata to display custom search results, but the format is standard and other search engines may decide to implement similar features.
