Were there changes in the way Google shows Title Tags?

[Dustybones]

Just found this over at Search Engine Roundtable. Thanks to Barry Schwatz for posting.

Google has a new design and with that your title tag length, the blue clickable link in the Google search results, may be impacted.Pete Meyers from Moz posted New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool. He says the new title tag length is not set at 55 or a specific length, but ranges between 42 and 68 depending on Google's algorithm.​

 

[Laustin1878]

What confuses me about this title change is that forever, long tail titles have been preached by many notable people in the SEO industry. This is aside from reducing the usage of key term targeting. I have noticed the changes to the SERP's but did not notice several of the finer details. The initial post showing comparisons between the old and new SERP's (which is linked to from the post where the title tag checker tools is) is a great way to highlight these changes.

I'll have to look for it but I believe Cutts even mentioned a bit about long tail. I know there was a discussion here recently about Google measuring the length of the title in pixels but I cannot figure out what exactly Google is looking for. In order for them to be successful with their changes, they need to let the people know what their intent is...at least a little bit. I know that is asking far more then we will get but I'll be interested to see where the dust settles with this title thing.

I don't mind the new SERP's. I think they are cleaner and more sleek but it does seem like more and more strides are being taken by Google to make things as genuine as possible. Which I also don't disagree with.

 

[Linda Buquet]

We've been discussing in the thread below too, with links to a few other articles.

New Look to Google SERPS?