In late December 2020, while most students were away for their holiday break, Google was spotted testing a new “practice problems” feature on its search result page.
According to SEO Round Table, the quiz feature would allow students to study the search results directly.
For example, a search for the word “physics” would surface a new category on the left side for practice problems. And these quizzes contain sample questions with multiple choice answers. What’s more, there’s a hint option for users that are unsure of the correct answer.
While many users have reported seeing the experimental search results in recent days, Shalom Goodman reported it first.
Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable wrote:
“Shalom Goodman shared a screenshot with me on Twitter showing a search for [optics] not only brings up a new category on the left side for “practice problems” but also adds a practice problem directly in the search results.”
https://twitter.com/ShalomGood/status/1344020744972496897
There’s more.
Google Confirms Showing Practice Problems in Search Results
When asked, Google confirmed that it was testing showing practice problems in search results. However, the statement doesn’t include details of how it works.
“This feature is an experiment we’re running,” the Google spokesperson said. “We’ll share more details about how the ecosystem can participate once it is available more widely.”
A quick look at the search results reveals that the quizzes come from two afterschool learning software companies — Toppr and BYJU’S.
However, it’s unclear whether Google has a type of paid partnership with these companies. On the other hand, the search engine giant could also be crawling the quiz content directly from the web.
Whatever the case may be, the feature is expected to roll out more widely in the coming months. Hopefully, other publishers will get the chance to opt into the new Google Search experiment.
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