In a Google search result, what is the title beside the favicon?

Question

The Google search results change their design from time to time, so it is nearly impossible to find a description of the current one. As of June 2023, it looks like that: A favicon, beside it there is a title and the URL. Underneath, there is another title in a larger font, followed by the snippet.

I searched all through the Internet but could not get a clue about how Google builds these two titles.

• I suspect that the title written in blue larger font is related to the HTML title tag, although it does not match exactly.
• I am completely lost in understanding where the title beside the favicon comes from.

I appended a screenshot from Google showing a search result of the phrase paris lodron universität salzburg mathematik, the additional title marked with a red ellipse.

We have websites where the title beside the favicon is completely unrelated to the website. A better understanding of it would give me the knowledge of how to fix it. Can some please shed a light on it?

Answer 1

Although one example is not enough, after trying a few searches and looking at the html/head info of the websites. It is derived from the Title. In the English version, it's removed the Mathematics from

Mathematics - Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg

or in your native version, it has removed things before the vertical bar (pipe)

Seite nicht gefunden | Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg

In other cases, I found it removes anything in brackets.