Google changed its mobile homepage for the first time in years
If you've opened Google.com on your phone lately, you might have noticed it looks a lot different.
That's because Google's personalized news feed is now rolling out to mobile browsers. The feature, which we first saw last year, delivers a mix of news stories, YouTube videos, sports scores, and other content Google has determined you're most likely to be interested in at that moment.
Google has launched similar features in the past: most notably, Google Now, the company's original personalized news feed, was available through the Google app and Android phones.
But this newer personalized feed is the first time the search giant has put such a feature front and center on its homepage, ensuring it gets in front of everyone who visits its homepage.
The feed is currently available in Google's mobile app (both iOS and Android) and on the mobile version on google.com when you're signed into the browser. The company has said it plans to eventually bring it to desktop browsers as well, but no word on that update just yet.
The current version of the feed is also much more personalized than Google Now ever was. You can tune the feed to your interests by dismissing topics you don't like, and you can hide news sources you don't want to see.
The feed also marks more of a philosophical shift for Google. For all of the company's advancements, its homepage has remained relatively unchanged. But now Google wants to take advantage of all that unused real estate underneath its iconic search box.
But it's not just about that empty space under the search box, either. As I highlighted at Google's 20th anniversary event last month, Google is remaking search across the board. Instead of simply displaying search results as blocks of text or static images, the company is throwing in vertical video, "evergreen" visual content, and even Stories -- features that sound more Instagram-worthy than what you'd expect from Google. But, as the company plans for the future of search, it's also trying to make its products more friendly to younger users, who might expect search to be as easy to navigate as social media feeds.
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.
