From Verbatim Search to a Query Fan-out Rabbit Hole

Query fan-out gets a lot of attention these days because of LLMs and AI-generated search results. Fair enough: it’s a significant feature we need to understand in order to optimize for search visibility.

But the underlying idea (that Google doesn’t just search the exact words you type) isn’t new.

I stumbled onto that reminder while analyzing SERPs yesterday. I wanted to compare Google’s “Web” results to the default “All” results, but Web is no longer visible as a top-level search tool. It’s found under “More” now.

While hunting for Web, I went to Tools > All results and clicked Verbatim out of curiosity.

That sent me down a rabbit hole that led to old-school query expansion, modern query fan-out, and the practical differences between Google’s Web and Verbatim filters.

How had I never heard of Verbatim search before?

In 2026 I learned Verbatim was introduced as an option back in 2011: when I was working as a bartender with no idea I’d care this much about search results one day.

Google's Verbatim announcement says, “Google search is a complex set of algorithms that expands and improves the query you’ve typed to find the best results.”

In other words, even before 2011, Google was already:

Automatically correcting your spelling
Personalization based on information like websites you’ve visited before
Including synonyms (e.g. including ‘car’ if you search ‘automotive’)
Recognizing acronyms & initials (e.g. understanding that FAQ = frequently asked questions)
Matching similar terms (e.g. ‘floral delivery’ if you search ‘flower shops’)
Using words with the same stem (e.g. ‘running’ if you search ‘run’)
Identifying implicit intent (e.g. localizing results if you search ‘pizza’)
Making some of what you typed optional (e.g. omitting ‘circa’ in ‘the scarecrow circa 1963’)

The Verbatim blog is a useful time capsule because it’s a reminder that Google was already expanding, rewriting, localizing, personalizing, and otherwise “improving” our search queries long before AI Overviews or AI Mode arrived.

Query fan-out didn't come out of nowhere

Traditional query expansion modifies and broadens the original query before searching. Query fan-out is a more complex, sophisticated evolution of that process. Instead of adjusting one query, it creates multiple (sometimes hundreds!) of related sub-queries, runs searches for them all in parallel, and stitches together a response.

Query fan-out techniques can include generating:

Equivalent queries (alternative phrasing)
Detailed queries for specific sub-topics
Broader queries for contextual and foundational concepts
Follow-up queries that logically arise once the initial query has been satisfied

It was really helpful to go back to an earlier Google Search update because it helped connect the dots to where we are today, and backfill some of my missing SEO experience which began in 2016. It’s reassuring to know that things have always been changing, even if the changes of the past three years feel especially challenging to keep up with. That context also made the differences between Web and Verbatim filters more interesting.

Web results vs Verbatim results

Both Web and Verbatim remove AI Overviews, but Web strips the SERP down, while Verbatim preserves the query perfectly.

Here’s what changes when you select ‘Web’:

AIO is removed
All rich SERP features are removed (Knowledge Panels, PAA, TTK, Videos, Shopping listings, etc)
Blue link results only
Your query is still “expanded and improved”, and personalization/location still apply

Here’s what changes when you select ‘Verbatim’:

AIO is removed
Blue link results and rich SERP features are shown
Your query is searched verbatim: no typo correction, no synonyms, no stemming—only the literal words you typed are searched
No personalization based on your location or search history

Why you might want to use Web to search:

AIO fatigue
Slow internet connection (blue links take less bandwidth & rendering)
You want to find a website
More effective use of advanced operators (e.g. site:, inurl:, “keyword”)
You want information, not products

Why you might want to use Verbatim to search:

Tracking down a specific serial number, medical code, error message, chemical formula, programming operator, or software bug string
Checking to see if your writing has been plagiarized
Looking for rare, archaic, or unusual spellings
Researching whether a brand or product name is already in use
You want to see “raw” search results based on your exact, entire search query with no personalization or location bias

Tying it all back to SEO

Google has always done more with our searches than simply match the exact words we type. Verbatim and Web are useful for SEO not because most searchers use them, but because they expose the legacy and extent to which Google habitually rewrites, expands, filters, and infers from our queries before we even see the results.

Obviously most SEO analysis should focus on the default SERP, because that’s what most searchers see.

But Web and Verbatim aren’t just niche use-case search options. They’re useful diagnostic tools for SEO work.

Web lets you see the “background” blue-link results without AIO and rich feature clutter.
Verbatim lets you deduce how much Google’s customary query expansion is changing your original search by revealing what results look like without it.

With attention to detail and critical thinking, both can help you better understand what Google is doing under the hood. If you work in SEO, you must have curiosity about search results as well as a solid grasp of the foundations, options, and nuances of the systems that surface those results.

Despite the last few years of continuous AI search advancements, SEO strategy often gets simplified into “what keyword are we targeting?” And that’s actually okay: this framework is still useful, especially when SEO needs to be translated into clear priorities for folks who don’t spend their work days waist-deep in the mechanics of SERPs.

That doesn’t mean keywords/queries are “dead” - they’re still important evidence that show us how people search, the language they use, what intent patterns Google is inferring behind the scenes.

But to plan an effective SEO strategy it's imperative to understand that Google isn’t matching one query to one page in a straightforward way. It’s interpreting intent, expanding language, connecting related concepts, and now, with query fan-out, generating whole clusters of related searches around the original prompt.

Just one step removed from the default SERP, Verbatim and Web are portals into the SERPs of yesteryear, and helpful reminders that the results you’re seeing are incredibly spun up from the original query. Parsing that interpretation is essential SEO work.

<div class="post-note-cute">If you’re trying to understand what changing SERPs mean for your website, we spend a lot of time digging into exactly this kind of question. <a href="https://momenticmarketing.com/contact">Reach out</a> if you want to talk through what’s showing up and why.</div>

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What Verbatim search reveals about query fan-out

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