This direction/change is
not surprising, tough I am surprised how 'early' it is happening. This will stay and grow. If you couple this 'presentation' change with rapidly increasing mobile/server processing power, it makes sense. As it is, search results are getting more context aware and also more local. Schema will never be used by average user, though search servers use taxonomy to provide better context in place of schema. Till servers get better at inferring the schema info, it will help if schema info is provided by 'good team member' sites!
I was expecting domain names to become redundant in couple of decades, now I would not be surprised if domain names as we know them, are not there for more then a decade. Domain names will not go away but they will not be in the dot form and tlds won't matter.
@Eric_Lyon, this makes me wonder if SEO/SEM impact of this is 'accidental' and due to how change in search is evolving/required? Seems like ... this change was required for our grand plans and we are letting you know so your SEO/SEM is not impacted suddenly?
@tomcarl, RE the dependency on domain name, .... For an average user, the domain names are not really important now, most non-techie/non-domainers I know search the company name or website name, which is usually again the company name, and go to the first link that comes up in search results. Mobile apps play a big role, as average user launches the app based in its visual icon, which is reducing need for sites.
like
@enlytend, I see "obfuscate the actual site you're clicking on and leave the door open for scammers/phishing" to be a serious issue but I would not be surprised to see
search results showing favicon of authenticated common sites next to company name soon. SSL certs also mitigate this problem somewhat.
Just like how IOT is going to radically change the shopping experience, where card cards and manned checkout points, will practically disappear in few years. It is not that companies want to do away with credit cards but card swiping will not be required. Eventually tap and pay will be on its way out. Why tap n pay when you will be 'auto' charged while leaving the store ( or have a drone deliver everything to you
). Just part of shopping experience evolution, just as this change of showing company names/bread-crumbs.