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Google is tweaking the way quoted searches work in its search engine and improving Touch to Search in the Chrome mobile app.
Searching with quotes refers to putting quotes around a search term and Google returns results with those exact words. The problem with the old style was that Google search results didn’t show where the term appeared on the page. You had to dig a little. But now, a small snippet appears below the search results (opens in new tab), shows exactly where to find your quoted term in bold.
It looks like the update is already in effect. We entered a search term in quotes on Google Search and indeed, we got results with snippets representing the phrase.
Originally hesitant
Google Search Software Engineer Yonghao Jin explained in a blog post about the updates that the reason the snippet was not added earlier is that some web pages made it difficult to implement. A specific phrase can be behind a page menu or other part of the website, so you should spend time finding it. Despite this issue, Google decided to go ahead with the snippet update.
The changes to the snippets aren’t perfect or universal, Google admits. If a web page contains the quoted term multiple times, “the snippet may not display them all if it does” [too] far apart from each other.” Bold terms are usually exclusive to Google Search for desktop. The announcement states that the bold text will not appear in snippets found in certain search modes such as Images or News, nor on mobile.
We asked Google what other search variants have the bold text in snippets. We will update this story if we get a response.
Mobile Chrome Tweaks
As for Chrome mobile, it is Touch to Search feature has a few new tweaks (opens in new tab).
Touch to Search allows users to highlight specific words or phrases for a quick search without leaving the page. After updating Google Chrome on our mobile device, we can confirm that the update is out.
The tool now has more granular control over how users interact with the feature. In the Chrome settings menu, you can enable the “Include surrounding text in Google results” option, which will include the text around a highlighted word in a Google search for better results. Accepted hand gestures have also been adjusted, as Google claims it has recently standardized the process. Previously, you had to tap and hold on a word to highlight it. Now Chrome recognizes a single tap to highlight.
The announcement also revealed that Google is working on new Chrome features; one is adding suggestions based on the word or phrase you highlighted. For example, if you highlight the word “San Francisco,” you might see suggestions for “San Francisco events” or “San Francisco people.”
If you’re hungry for more Chrome news, we highly recommend reading our Chrome 104 story. The update fixes a total of 27 security vulnerabilities, seven of which were considered “very serious.”