Google’s search results have definitely changed over the years, and mostly for the better. Now we have cards that appear in results giving you all sorts of information. For instance, if you search for someone, you may see a card at the top of the search results with information like when they were born (when they died, if applicable), what their job was and so much more. Usually this information is taken from Wikipedia, which will be linked in the box as well. Now Google is expanding this to colleges and universities. Which makes it especially useful for those that are in high school and looking to head to college, and deciding on which college to choose from.
These new cards don’t take information from the universities’ website, instead it gets the information from the US Department of Education’s College Scorecard. Now these scorecards include the graduation rate, the average total cost of attending with financial aid, the average salary after attending this particular school and the acceptance rate. Giving students a good bit of data to use in their search for a new school to attend after high school. Of course, there is still that snippet from Wikipedia, telling you all about the school, which is also just as important.
Many may be wondering why Google is doing this now. Well, it’s to get more users searching using their engine. Of course, they do want to make things as easy as possible for everyone, but the underlying reason is advertising. It’s important to remember here that Google is an advertising business first. Sure they have their hands in a ton of other areas, but more than 95% of their revenue comes from advertising. And by having users submit more and more search queries, it’ll make the company more money. Which is the bottom line for Google, and how they are able to offer so many services for free to their users.
These updated cards are now available in Google search. Just simply search for a school and you’ll see the card appear with all the new information. It does indeed work on both desktop and mobile.