1. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 1 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
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Powerball Numbers? You’ll Be Surprised
Which Search Engines Knew Them
It was the biggest lottery drawing in US history, and neither Google nor Bing
showed searchers the winning numbers. Here's who did.
Matt McGee on January 10, 2016 at 2:41 am
Millions of Americans waited anxiously Saturday night to find out if they’d won the latest
Powerball lottery drawing. An estimated $950 million jackpot awaited the winner(s), and
search activity skyrocketed as the drawing took place and players went looking for the winning
numbers.
Google Trends shows a huge spike in US search activity for the term “powerball” leading right
up to and after the drawing at 7:59 p.m. PT:
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2. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 2 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
So, how did the search engines do at responding to this spike? Let’s take a look.
Google
As I type this, at almost 11:00 p.m. PT, almost three hours have passed, and Google isn’t
answering that search activity with a direct answer showing the winning numbers. Instead,
what’s showing is a Google News Onebox and the Twitter carousel that shows tweets
matching my search term.
The snippet underneath the first result — that ABC News headline — appears to cut off at an
inopportune point right before the winning numbers would show. If that snippet continued just
a few characters more, you could say that Google was showing the winning numbers with its
first search result. Likewise, if you scroll down below the fold to the search result for the
Powerball website, the snippet does include the winning numbers. So, technically speaking,
Google has the winning numbers on page one… but a snippet on a below-the-fold search
result isn’t how Google typically handles queries like this.
Bing
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3. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 3 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
Like Google, Bing doesn’t have an answer box showing the winning numbers. And like
Google, the only place you’ll find them on page one of Bing’s search results is in a search
result snippet that shows below the fold. Above the fold, Bing is only showing the Powerball
website and the beginning of a Bing News result pack.
So who is showing the winning Powerball numbers in easy view for this popular search term
tonight? Would you be surprised to know that both Yahoo and Ask.com are doing so? It’s true
— have a look.
Yahoo
Yahoo has the best search results page of all, with the winning numbers right at the top of the
page. The data for “current estimated jackpot” is about $150 million low, but that figure was
changing rapidly throughout the day as tickets were bought, so we’ll cut Yahoo some slack.
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4. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 4 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
Ask.com
I stopped considering Ask.com a major search engine a looooong time ago but felt compelled
to check tonight. And sure enough, Ask has the results — and a couple of others — right
inside a lottery results answer pack.
I also checked DuckDuckGo, and it’s showing a results page that’s even less helpful than
Google and Bing — pure organic results, with no news links or anything special for tonight’s
drawing. I’ll spare you the screenshot.
What About Social Media?
Believe it or not, for at least a while tonight, you were better off checking Facebook or Twitter
instead of Google or Bing if you wanted to find the winning lottery numbers.
Facebook
Powerball is listed as the top trending story on Facebook tonight. The winning numbers don’t
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5. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 5 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
show in the Trending box to the right of my News Feed, but when I go to click the Powerball
link, they do show in the longer description inside the hover window.
Not as convenient as Yahoo or Ask.com, but no scrolling or clicks required on Facebook.
Twitter
Powerball is also trending tonight on Twitter. About 30 minutes ago, when I did a Twitter
search for “powerball,” the first matching tweet was a news story that included the winning
numbers.
That was a half-hour ago, and of course, things can change quickly on Twitter, in particular.
When I do the same search now, there are new tweets showing with updated news stories
that aren’t about the winning numbers but about the fact that there were no winners.
6. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 6 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
At least for a while, when the news was focused on the winning numbers, you could’ve seen
them right away by searching Twitter. Now that the story is changing, the Twitter results are
changing, too.
Google & Bing (Encore)
To be fair, since I did two Twitter searches at different times, I just did another search on both
Google and Bing. It’s been about a half-hour since I took the screenshots above. The results?
No change for Bing; still no winning numbers. But Google got a little bit better, with five of the
winning numbers showing in the snippet below the top news story.
Still, it’s not a great result for Google — and even worse for Bing — when you consider how
many people were searching for the winning Powerball numbers tonight. With the next jackpot
growing much larger and search interest sure to grow along with it, it’ll be interesting to see if
the top two search engines respond with direct answers next Wednesday night.
7. 3/8/16, 6:27 PMPowerball Numbers? You'll Be Surprised Which Search Engines Knew Them
Page 7 of 8http://searchengineland.com/powerball-winning-numbers-search-engines-239907
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt McGee
FollowFollow @mattmcgee@mattmcgee
Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Search
Engine Land and Marketing Land. His news
career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print
journalism. After leaving traditional media in the
mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing
websites and continued to provide consulting
services for more than 15 years. His SEO and
social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop
small businesses to one of the Top 5 online
retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing
events around the U.S., including keynote and
panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at
@MattMcGee. You can read Matt's disclosures
on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via
email using our Contact page.
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