Bug Causes Some Google+ Elements To Drop From Brand Boxes [UPDATED]

Some Google+ elements have disappeared from Knowledge Graph boxes that appear in Google search for some brands, but Google says this is a bug that’s being fixed.

The bug only impacts the Knowledge Graph box appearing on the right side of the search results page. If the brand has a Google+ page, then some Google+ elements are integrated into that box, in particular, a “Recent Posts” section.

For users who aren’t logged into Google, that Recent Posts section no longer shows. Those who are logged-in still see them. Google assures us this is going to return, and that it’s only missing because of a bug that’s being fixed.

In an earlier edition of this story, we said that Follow buttons were also missing for logged-out users. Google tells us those never appeared (and thus, there’s no change in presentation as a result of this bug). Logged-in users still see them.

Our earlier edition also said this was the second pull-back on Google+ integration into search results in as many months. Last month, Google+ authorship display was killed. However, since Google tells us this was a bug, this is more of an isolated incident rather than part of a pattern of removing more of Google+ from search results, it seems.

Postscript: Google tells us that the bug was fixed late Thursday night. And we confirmed that Recent Posts are displaying in brand boxes for signed-out users.