In Answers.com Q3 2009 earnings call on 11/4/09, Answers.com CEO stated that  ”We’ve been informed by Google that we will no longer be receiving their definition link traffic starting sometime in Q4.” The definition link (shown below) appears when someone searches Google searches for terms and phrases that have a dictionary or encyclopedia definition.

 

Google definition link

 

For the last five years, clicking the definition link has led the user to the Answers.com website which offers a wide range of information on the requested topic. That link accounts for about 5% of Answers.com $20Million a year revenues, or about $1Million a year.

So who is Google going to give the definition link to next? The answer may be to Google itself. Google Dictionary is a very powerful tool that can be used to look up millions of words, terms, information on famous people, geography, landmarks and just about anything. If the term appears in Google’s own dictionary, it will display that information. For other terms, Google will offer a variety of Internet sources and images that provide information. See example below:

 

Google dict rushmore

 

Google Dictionary already provides multilingual support and will tell you if the searched term has relevance in other languages. So although the definition link feature is  not available on the non-English versions of Google, it is logical to predict that the feature will be available in the future.

Tweet Facebook Digg