Google search results may no longer offer infinite scrolling
Google is one of the most popular search engines in the world, but it is also notorious for killing its products. There is even a standalone website dedicated to keeping track of every product and service the tech giant has killed. The latest feature to be discontinued is continuous scroll in search results, just two years after it was first introduced. According to a report, Google has announced that it will soon stop offering infinite scroll when it comes to search results on both mobile and desktop platforms, opting instead for a page-by-page lookup format.
No continuous scroll in Google search results
Google first introduced continuous search results on mobile in 2021, and a year later it came to the desktop platform. However, it is now reportedly being discontinued. According to a Search Engine Land reportThe Mountain View tech giant is rolling back the feature and instead prioritizing a page number search format.
A Google spokesperson is said to have said that the feature will no longer be available for desktop platforms starting today, while it will be rolled back on mobile devices “in the coming months.”
Instead of a continuous search, desktop users will now reportedly see page numbers followed by a Next one option under the Gooooooooooogle logo. On mobile devices, a More results option is speculated to be introduced that loads the next page of search results. According to the report, users should move to the next page after about 10 search results.
The reason for this? Google reportedly said that automatically fetching search results did not result in higher satisfaction with the search engine. “This change is intended to allow the search company to show search results more quickly for more searches, rather than automatically loading results that users did not explicitly request,” the company added.
Problems with Google’s AI
Meanwhile, Google Search has been in the news for the past few weeks, but not for the right reasons. The search engine introduced several artificial intelligence (AI) features to its platform, promising faster and better search results. However, one of the flagged features, known as AI Overviews, began spewing false and somewhat bizarre information, some of which was based on questionable search results.
While Google claimed that AI Overviews only showed information “powered by top web results”, the search tool’s failure was attributed to problems filtering out satirical and nonsense content. The feature has since been significantly scaled back, with one report suggesting that it only appears for 15 percent of searches.
