Google announced new feature 'In Depth articles' for Google Search

Google in the inside search blog today(6/8/2013) announced a new feature for Google Search that shows in-depth articles related to your search queries. The author Pandu Nayak says,

"To understand a broad topic, sometimes you need more than a quick answer. Our research indicates perhaps 10% of people’s daily information needs fit this category -- topics like stem cell research, happiness, and love, to name just a few. That's why over the next few days we’ll be rolling out a new feature to help you find relevant in-depth articles in the main Google Search results.  Now sometimes when you're searching for a broad topic (on google.com in English to start), you'll find a new block of results like the following:

Image Courtesy: Google

This new feature is intended to surface authoritative and detailed write-ups and articles on certain different subjects like pollutions, censorship or celebrity profiles. As per the information available till now there will be three “in-depth” articles which will appear in the main result page from sources like The New Yorker, Guardian, Wall Street Journal etc. reflecting what Google thinks are the most important articles on that given subject. Google also mentioned that these 'In depth' search results will remain stable for weeks or months because these result meant the best available information on the topics. Google also says that it has no plans for selling the slots for in depth articles as for now.

Google has not yet disclosed how the articles will be determined in depth but the chances are it will search for most detailed high-quality stories from a select number of popular and reliable sources like prestigious newspapers and magazines. This new feature is something similar to already available features like 'NEWS for ………...' 

So what this means for the publishers?

 For big publishers it’s a good news as the stories will be highlighted more in the search which directly means sudden spurt in visitors from the search, but it may not be a good news for small publishers who will find it difficult to include their articles in this 'In Depth Articles' list, but don't get discouraged as one of the Google spokesperson says that,  lesser known blogs or small-town newspapers will make the three-article cut if they are especially definitive or informative. So just start writing impressive and extensive articles on important topics following the Google guidelines to see your article in this top 3.

Google has provided some guidelines for the publishers on this matter.  In the Webmasters Central blog post, Google says,

"These results are ranked algorithmically based on many signals that look for high-quality, in-depth content. You can help our algorithms understand your pages better by following these recommendations:·  

• use schema.org “article” markup, 
• provide authorship markup, 
• rel=next and rel=prev for paginated articles (also watch out for common rel=canonical mistakes), 
• provide information about your organization’s logo, 
• and of course, create compelling in-depth content

Following these best practices along with our webmaster guidelines helps our systems to better understand your website’s content, and improves the chances of it appearing in this new set of search results. "

This feature will be rolled out on google.com search in English language in the phase-wise manner. So you may not see this feature just now. But eventually it will appear for all English language searches.