A New Google Search Engine Feature
Google began its brand new rollout of a new search engine feature for US users recently. The newest change adds a 3-dot menu to each site that appears in the search engine results. From this menu, users can gain information about the website.
This is an advertised Beta feature by Google, and it offers info from Wikipedia when available. When a page does not have a Wikipedia entry, alternative data like whether the page is secure or not and the first time the page was indexed are offered.
Why Are They Doing This?
Google is doing this to ensure their users are getting access to accurate information. Likewise, they are doing it to ensure users can see the credibility of the website they are gathering this information from. That way, they can make a better and more informed decision on whether or not to click through to the site.
However, because the search engine is relying so much upon the information gathered from Wikipedia, it’s limited in terms of its use-case. After all, the information is only going to be as useful and as accurate as Wikipedia is. Wikipedia isn’t always 100 percent accurate nor do they have data on every site. The feature is sort of hidden behind an overflow menu which is not the best for a modern interface. Therefore, if someone isn’t aware that they should tap on the 3-dot menu, they are likely going to completely miss it.
The new 3-dot menu does add the ability to look up the full address of the website and the search results without having to leave the results page. This can make it useful for those who are using the feature on mobile phones.
The description that Google uses that has been scraped from Wikipedia isn’t very long. It does offer a link that you can click on which will redirect you to the Wikipedia page. The good thing is, Google does offer a widget that contains all of the information about the top result when it is available. It’s not entirely clear why Google has decided not to display this information in the brand new overlay.
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