Sharing is caring – we all know this statement and it is always popular. But it’s really like this: who shares, does good. Sharing links offers a lot of added value, therefore, the sharing culture on the internet is very strong. In some areas, such as social networks, it even goes so far that you can no longer imagine everyday life without the function and culture. But there are also areas where sharing (so far) does not matter at all, such as search engines or search results. But could that change soon?

Recently, some users were very confused when using Google: After entering the search words, the result was displayed as usual, but beside the search results appeared buttons that were not there yet. Was it a mistake or a test? Search Engines Land was immediately reported on the phenomenon and there were also a few details. The three buttons that were displayed offered the user the possibility to share a search result, to open it in a new tab or to open a cache page.

Google officially confirmed that this was a test, but it was reserved for a limited number of users. Before the message could spread, it was all over again. That alone said a lot about this test. While it may seem interesting at first glance to offer a sharing feature in the search, Google does not seem to have much interest in it yet. They tried it for a short time – and not for the first time – but there seems to be no plans to extend these tests. There are simply no really good arguments and the added value of such a function is currently not proven. On the contrary, so far no one expects more traffic if the sharing would be possible. Did someone already share a page before he has opened it? Or go from the page, back to the search results, just to share the result? That seems a little logical – and so it will probably be only further tests in the future.