As part of what the company is calling a “spring metamorphosis,” Google this week announced a revamp of its search page.
Now, whenever you enter in a search term, there’s a new contextual left-hand menu there to greet you, allowing you to easily switch between a general Web search, news articles, blogs, images, and more using Google’s Universal Search feature. Below, you can filter your results with Search Options, or, if you have Google Squared installed, see a list of similar search queries to your topic.
In practice: let’s say you want to read blogger reactions from Tuesday’s Lost episode. You can search “lost tv,” switch over to Blogs, and filter results within the last 24 hours—although sadly, Google has yet to build an option for filtering out spoilers.
In the U.S., Google is also releasing a mobile version of these changes for the iPhone OS and Android-powered devices. Tapping a button to the left of the search bar will bring out the same left-hand contextual menu and search options—you can access your search results by either scrolling to the side or closing the menu.
According to a blog post on Google Mobile about the announcement, “when it comes to mobile search, we strive to not only give you the same comprehensiveness and relevance as when searching with Google on your computer, but also a consistent look, feel, and overall user experience.” Google hopes to support other languages and devices for its Mobile search in the coming months.
Changes to the desktop search have been gradually rolling out since Wednesday to users in 37 languages, but don’t panic if you don’t see any shiny new contextual menus yet. On my computer, both Chrome and Firefox have switched over, but I have yet to see a change to Safari. Sure, it could be some kind of nefarious plot to get me to switch away from the Apple browser—but more than likely, Google is still working on updating everything.
If you want some more information on the switch, you can read Google’s blog post on the matter, or watch a quick YouTube video (embedded below for your viewing pleasure).