Google has decided to make a big change to their homepage, the company’s bland yet famously simple homepage will be receiving it’s first complete change to it’s appearance since 1996, after this new update Google will add a news- based feed and interest column to their homepage.
The feed will be composed of personalized information for the user, these features have only been seen on Google’s apps for the Android and iOS since 2012, Google’s Nexus and Pixel smartphones and tablets will also be receiving a home screen page. The announcement was made on Wednesday, the new customization methods will be taken from the company “Google Now” personalization in December.
Vice President of engineering at Google, Shashi Thakur, gave a small statement pertaining to what users can expect to see when using the new feature arrive, “You’ll see cards with things like sports highlights, top news, engaging videos, new music, stories to read and more. And now, your feed will not only be based on your interactions with Google, but also factor in what’s trending in your area and around the world.” After looking up which news article, sports, movies, or music the user wishes to find through the use of the search engine, the newsfeed will show new updates on those topics.
Google has stated that the new updates will officially be released globally in the new few weeks. Though, some of the new features to the webpage are already available through the use of the mobile Google search apps the addition of the feed on desktop will be a big improvement as well as offer even more convenience for Google users. As of yet all of the details regarding the new features have still not been released, one concern users have is if it will be able to work with the company’s voice-controlled Google Assistant, the feed will probably be linked t the users account and will likely require them to log in on order to see and use it most likely mirroring the mobile app.
Google once had a similar customizable homepage known as “iGoogle” that launched in May 2005 and allowed users to add any news they wanted to their homepage to better customize it, the had to be logged into their account in order to view their homepage rather than it just being a default homepage, however, it was discontinued in November 2013. This new feature could allow Google to top other search engine websites such as Yahoo, and Bing who have already added similar functions to their websites, given Google’s already overwhelming popularity this new feature will only help to boost Google’s use.
