Emoji Symbols in Google Search Results

Emoji Symbols in Google Search ResultsThey’ve been here. Why is no one using them?

By: Sean Murray

By: Sean Murray https://plus.google.com/u/0/109189137968513076451/posts

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109189137968513076451/posts?rel=author

https://plus.google.com/u/0/109189137968513076451/posts


April 3rd, 2013. WHAT THE HECK?On April 3, 2013. I stumbled upon Emoji symbols in a Google search result title

by accident. (Learn what Emoji symbols are)

I posted my findings in the Google Authorship Community to gather feedback. The majority of people were shocked an Emoji symbol made its way into a search title and a few said it was most likely an oversight by Google, as they had made strides to eradicate unicode characters in the past.

My finding was rare enough that it became news on Search Engine Roundtable the following day, with my community post listed as the source.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji

http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/000022.html

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-html-entities-titles-16596.html


The Finding Was ReplicatedSearch Engine Roundtable was able to replicate the Emoji Symbol and it

appeared in Google’s search results the day they released their story.

I was also able to replicate the display of Emoji symbols in search. I have played around with many different ones. Here is a recent example with money bags:



Compatibility ProblemsMany people that set off to investigate the appearance of Emoji symbols in

search believed it was a hoax or a rare bug because they could not find any evidence of it themselves. Others reached the conclusion that Emoji displays were browser specific. Upon further examination it became apparent that Operating System also played a role.

And so I set off to find out which combinations could display Emoji symbols and which ones couldn’t.



Compatibility Test

I wrote a webpage that used several hundred Emoji symbols and tested it across many Browsers and Operating Systems. (I have a subscription to Browser Stack which helped a ton!

Displayed more than 90% of tested Emoji SymbolsMac Mountain Lion – Firefox 20Mac Mountain Lion – Firefox 19Mac Mountain Lion – Safari 6.03Mac Lion – Firefox 20Mac Lion – Firefox 19Mac Lion – Safari 6.03Mac Lion – Safari 5.0Windows 8 – Firefox 18Windows 8 – Internet Explorer 10Windows 7 – Internet Explorer 10iPhone 4s – SafariiPhone 4s (6.0) – SafariiPhone 5 – SafariiPad 3 – SafariiPad 3 (6.0) – SafariDroid Samsung Galaxy s3 – default browserGoogle Nexus 7 – default browser

ConclusionThere were no browsers or operating systems with 100% incompatibility.

Some symbols do work across all platforms. Symbols vary in color and design across platforms however.

Google’s Chrome Browser is largely incompatible regardless of OS but Google Nexus is very compatible.


http://www.browserstack.com/


Google Says ‘NO’ to someGoogle does filter out some Emoji symbols. They are more strict with titles

than they are with descriptions. The telephone Emoji (☎) was filtered out by Google in my title tests.

The leftwards triangle was filtered by Google in my title tests but worked in my description. Snippet of it in a description:

So Google is filtering, but only some.

If you do not see the Emoji Symbols in the titles or descriptions of my websites, it’s probably because I am constantly swapping them out and running tests.



Overall, Emoji symbols do exist in searchAnd not just in titles, but in the descriptions too:

And also in Chrome’s dropdown bar when typing in a URL, but only if you’ve been to that website before. It pulls it from the cache:



And it doesn’t appear to be temporarySearch Engine Roundtable reported the use of colored Emoji symbols in search

back in August 2012. And alas, the example website cited is still using an Emoji successfully, but currently one that only works on iPhones.

That’s about 8 months since a well-known SEO news site reported on this. Is it really possible that Google hasn’t been able to correct this “bug”? Or is it more likely that Emoji symbols are a feature they are purposely allowing?

FEATURE!


http://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-emoji-14977.html


Those damn hackers and their greedI have heard grumblings from people I shared my findings

with that Emoji symbols or icons in search would spell the end of online civilization and that their existence is the work of hackers and devil worshippers who would do anything to boost their own CTR.

But have you noticed the direction that Google is going?

Authorship is beautifying the search results and boosting the CTRs of those site owners. Google of the future is less about text, and more about identifying. Could users make a connection between what a site is about faster with an icon than they could by reading the title or description? POSSIBLY!



ENOUGH ALREADY, HOW DO I DO THIS?!?!Use a compatible Browser and OS. There are actually 2 HTML entities for each Emoji

symbol.

For fire: 🔥 (hex entity) Or 🔥 (decimal entity)

Go ahead type one into Google if you’ve got a working platform:

Decimal code produces this ->

Hex code produces this ->

Place the HTML entity code in your <title> tags and/or in your meta description markup.



Basic List 1



Basic List 2



There’s a whole lot moreI’ve given you a bunch. You should be able to track down other characters on your own.

HTML entities are not hacks, they are encoded characters. See: http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_entities.asp

Not sure which Emojis are cross compatible? That’s up to you to figure out on your own. Have fun, but not too much. Last I heard Google still ranks websites based on text, not on symbols. So, too many symbols is not a good thing. Besides I haven’t heard anything specifically from Google that says this is the new standard. That’s just a leap of faith I’m taking. I am not responsible if you blow up your website, get in trouble, or lose rankings.

Please share your successes and failures with Emoji symbols with me. Add me on Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109189137968513076451/posts


http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_entities.asp



Choose Your Emoji Symbols WiselySeveral symbols are compatible across all Browsers and Operating Systems.

Know your target market! If the bulk of your site visitors are using older platforms or Google Chrome, you should choose cross compatible symbols. If a lot of them are Mac or iPhone users, you may be okay choosing whichever Emoji symbol you want.

The most common user-agent I see on the websites I manage is Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 9, a platform that is limited to just a few symbols.

Talk to me about Emoji Symbols: https://plus.google.com/u/0/109189137968513076451/posts




Date post:	06-May-2015
Category:	Self Improvement
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Emoji Symbols in Google Search Results

Self Improvement