Author Archives: Mona Vajolahi

Helping you easily identify information sources in Search

People come to Google to find information from a wide range of sources and formats, from big brands to individual creators, across text, images and video. As we’ve introduced features and design elements to help you explore information in new ways, we’ve also continued to bring greater context to the search results page, helping you make sense of the information you see. Today, we’re making a few new updates to the search page that build on this work, providing even more information about the sites that you see so you can feel confident about the websites you visit.

We’re adding site names to search results on mobile, so you can easily identify the website that’s associated with each result at a glance. We’re also updating the size and shape of the favicon (a website’s logo or icon) that appears in Search, to make it easier to see on the page. We’ll extend these changes to Search ads to increase clarity and advertiser transparency at a glance.

A scrolling GIF of mobile search results featuring site names and favicons on search results and ads, including the word Sponsored.

Part of helping you make sense of the information you see is ensuring that ads are clearly labeled, which is why our label will now be featured on its own line in the top-left corner of Search ads. We also want the label to be prominent and clear across different types of paid content. That’s why when ads show on mobile search results, they will now be labeled with the word “Sponsored” in bold black text. This new label and its prominent position continues to meet our high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on our existing efforts to make information about paid content clear.

This search page update is starting to gradually roll out on mobile and we’ll soon begin testing a similar experience on desktop, helping people more easily find what they’re looking for, no matter where they’re searching.

A fresh way to revisit your online finds in Google Search

Remember that chicken parmesan recipe you found online last week? Or that rain jacket you discovered when you were researching camping gear? Sometimes when you find something on Search, you’re not quite ready to take the next step, like cooking a meal or making a purchase. And if you’re like me, you might not save every page you want to revisit later. 


Today, we’re launching some changes to Collections in Search to make it easier to jump back into your task without digging through your search history. Last year, we created activity cards in Search to make your search history more useful, and to help you pick up where you left off. Using AI, Collections in the Google app and mobile web now groups similar pages you've visited from Search related to activities like cooking, shopping and hobbies. You can choose to save these suggested collections so you can come back to them later. 


These suggestions can be accessed any time from the Collections tab in the Google app (new on Android!), or through the Google.com side menu on the mobile web. And if you don't want Google to suggest collections for you, you can control this in your settings, which you can visit right from Collections in the Google app.

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Once you have a collection, Google can help you make better, faster decisions by showing you what you might want to check out next. Based on what you’ve saved, you’ll see related websites, images, products, and even related searches so you can explore new aspects of a topic. You’ll find these by clicking on the “Find More” button within a collection.

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There’s also a new collaboration feature that lets you share and work on a collection with others. For example, if you’re planning a party with friends, you might want to share the recipes you’re considering, or the decorations you want to use so you can make a decision together. When sharing a collection, you'll have the option to let others view it or to let others make changes. And you can always make it private again if you don't want to share it anymore. 

The ability to see related content and to share or collaborate on a collection is now available globally. Suggested collections will start to appear for U.S. English users beginning today. We’ll look to bring these features to more languages and regions over time.

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Whether you're planning an event, plotting a garden renovation or tracking down tips for tidying up, jump start your next project with Collections. 

Source: Search