The use of HTML entities in Google's search results in order to make your snippets stand out is nothing new. We've been reporting on it for literally ten years. We've seen it in sitelinks and ...

Kim Clinkunbroomer shared on Google + (link might not work for all) that some of the anchor sitelinks do allow for some HTML entities, at least for now - I am sure Google will disable them soon.

When selected, the icons feature Google’s signature red, blue, yellow, and green coloring, but otherwise are light gray when not in focus. Besides the Search categories, the overflow menu also ...