Google is making significant changes to its search experience with new features aimed at providing more personalized search results. One of the major updates is the introduction of a “Follow” button in Google Search, allowing users to subscribe to specific topics and receive updates on those topics directly in their home feed and when revisiting the search. The Follow button will also enable notifications, delivering new content on the followed topic to users. Additionally, Google will introduce a “News for you” section, displaying news topics and new content related to the followed topics. The search snippets will be adapted to show specific content based on the followed topics, and Google Discover may send notifications when new content on the topic is available. These features are first launching in the US English search results within the Google App and mobile search results.
Another change includes a new ranking feature that takes into account the sites a user frequently visits and shows those sites more often in the search results. For instance, if a user frequently visits a specific website, Google may rank content from that site higher in the search results. This feature is independent of topic following and will be introduced later this year for English users within the US. Furthermore, Google is updating the Perspectives feature to include content from social media platforms, discussion forums, blog posts, and other communities. This feature, which has been available on mobile, will also be launched on desktop in the coming weeks. Moreover, Google will be highlighting more information about the content creators directly in the search results, including their social media accounts and follower count.
However, it should be noted that there is no way to turn off these features without disabling all personalization or signing out of Google Search. Overall, these updates are designed to create a more tailored and personalized search experience for users, allowing them to stay up to date on topics they care about and providing them with more relevant and informative content directly in the search results.
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