Depending on the nature of a Google search, there are times when results show a source and other times when they do not.

In fact, Search Engine Roundtable recently reached out to Google to try to get some answers to its formula, but Google's response provided insight and vague undertones.

"When it's basic factual information you can find many places (e.g., when Obama was born), we just present it as is," Google told SER. "When it's not widely known information, or when we show relevant snippets from webpages, we typically do show the source (though we may not in some cases where we're working directly with the source)."

The big question is what exactly Google considers to be "basic factual information."

Below is an example of a search on the United States.

1) When was the United States formed?

2) Who were the founding fathers?

3) Who was the first President of the United States?

4) Who was the first Vice President of the United States?

5) Where is the White House located?

For the most part, the results that did or did not contain a link appeared to make sense. However, one could assume that most individuals would know that the White House is located in Washington D.C. and that John Adams was the first Vice President.

As SEW found in June, Google Knowledge Graph began taking more complex searches and providing synopses at the top of search results. At least in that case, however, there was still a link connecting to the original source.