Google is reported to stop offering continuous scrolling in search
It may be rolled back today for desktop users and “soon” for smartphones
A page-by-page search result format is said to be introduced
Google introduced continuous search results on mobile in 2021 and it made its way to desktop a year later
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Arkan Perdana
Google is one of the world's most popular search engines but it is also infamous for killing its products. In fact, there is a standalone website dedicated to tracking every product and service killed by the tech giant. The latest feature to be discontinued is the continuous scroll in search results, just two years after it was introduced. According to a report, Google has announced that it will soon stop offering infinite scrolling when it comes to Search results on both mobile and desktop platforms, opting for a page-by-page lookup format instead.
No continuous scroll in Google search results
Google first introduced continuous search results on mobile in 2021 and it made its way to the desktop platform a year later. However, it is now reportedly being discontinued. According to a Search Engine Land report, the Mountain View-based tech giant is rolling back the feature and will prioritise a search-by-page-number format instead.
A Google spokesperson reportedly said that the feature will be discontinued for the desktop platforms starting today, while it will be rolled back on mobile devices “in the coming months”.
In place of continuous search, desktop users will reportedly now see page numbers followed by a Next option below the Goooooooooogle logo. On mobile devices, a More results option is speculated to be introduced that will load the next search results page. As per the report, users would need to turn to the next page after every 10 search results or so.
The reason behind it? Google reportedly said that fetching search results automatically didn't result in higher satisfaction with the search engine. “This change is to allow the search company to serve the search results faster on more searches, instead of automatically loading results that users haven't explicitly requested”, the company added.
Google's AI troubles
Meanwhile, Google Search has been in the news over the last few weeks but not for the right reasons. The search engine introduced several artificial intelligence (AI) features on its platform, promising quicker and better search results. However, one of the highlighted features, known as AI Overviews, began spewing false and somewhat bizarre information, some of which were based on dubious search results.
While Google claimed that AI Overviews only displayed information “backed up by top web results”, the search tool's error was attributed to it facing troubles while filtering out satirical and nonsensical content. The feature has since been scaled down by a large extent, and a report suggests it is showing up for just 15 percent of search queries.
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