Google search on mobile is getting tabs for better results for movies and TV
Google just made search results a lot more useful.
The company is giving its mobile search results a new look, with a new set of tabs that show more information about television shows, movies, stocks, and books. The update's available now for mobile search results in the U.S.
Now when you search for a movie or TV show, Google will surface individual tabs that let you browse topics related to the search. This includes trailers, news stories, cast details, showtimes, and critic reviews.
Google previously surfaced some of this information, like showtimes, directly in search results, but this is the first time it's all been organized by the type of info, which each type easily accessible with just a tap.
Similarly, when you search for a book title, you'll see tabs to check reviews, similar titles, and places to buy it. There are also links to access a preview where you read a few pages, thanks to Google Books.
Finally, with search results for specific stocks, the new search tabs make it easy to switch between news, stock comparisons, and other financial information related to the company.
Again, this is an evolution of what Google has already offered -- if you searched for a movie title before, the results gave a less extensive array of tabs -- but now there are more of them, and the experience has been refined: It's much smoother to switch between tabs and discover your info without ever leaving Google.
Which is certainly the point. With the majority of searches now happening on mobile, Google is scrambling to figure out exactly what the future of search looks like. Much of that strategy is centered on the company's abilities to predict what you want to see, even if you yourself don't know.
Earlier this year, the company also introduced a new personalized feed that puts a stream of updates right on its mobile homepage.
The company says the new tabbed design is mobile-only for now, with the results appearing in both mobile web results and searches made via the Google app, but that it could come to desktop in the future.
Topics Google
Karissa was Mashable's Senior Tech Reporter, and is based in San Francisco. She covers social media platforms, Silicon Valley, and the many ways technology is changing our lives. Her work has also appeared in Wired, Macworld, Popular Mechanics, and The Wirecutter. In her free time, she enjoys snowboarding and watching too many cat videos on Instagram. Follow her on Twitter @karissabe.
