Google is updating its search results to provide fact-based answers directly in the results. The feature is called Answer Highlighting and it bolds facts in the text description area of a result.
For example, if you're curious as to how tall the Empire State building is and query "empire state building height," you used to get a direct link to that info in Wikipedia's text description. Now, the fact is directly included in the Wikipedia listing.
See before and after shots below:
Before:
After:
Answer Highlighting is based on the Google Squared effort, which is designed to organize information into spreadsheets based on information structures that appear to be factual.
Images via Google
http://tinyurl.com/yctcknx