Google has once again changed the way it displays results. Until now, and for a couple of years, it showed an infinite scroll. Basically, you performed a search and results would appear continuously, as you scrolled down the screen, whether on your mobile or PC. Now revert that change and return to the original state: the results pagination. Will it stay like this forever?
At the user level, the impact may seem small at first, but it may not be so. Especially when we have been used to searching this way for a few years now. At least initially, we may notice it quite a bit when we search for anything on the Internet.
Google results change
The change is simple: instead of continuously appearing results when you reach the end of the page, it will now show a page and you will have to manually go to the next one. It is just as it appeared a few years ago, before they introduced this change, first in the mobile version and then also in the desktop version.
If you do a search on Google, you will see that there are differences between the desktop version and the mobile version. In the first one, if you enter from your computer, the pagination appears below. On the other hand, they have not yet implemented it on mobile devices. There will be users who see it as an inconspicuous change, but surely others see it as a setback, especially on mobile, having to click to the next page.
But what is the reason behind this change? From Google they indicate that what they are looking for is to show the most relevant results. Now, that actually already happened, only before you had the option to quickly scroll down and up and choose which one interested you most based on your search.
The truth is that this change has already raised some controversies on social networks. Some indicate that this is nothing more than a Google strategy to make paid results, that is, ads, more visible (and relevant to them). It’s as easy as now they limit everything a little more to that first page, to those first results, and Internet users can click on ads.
Will it be a definitive change?
What does seem clear is that this change is here to stay. At least, for quite some time. It would not be logical that, after a couple of years with the infinitive scroll, they now make this change to only have it in the short term. The normal thing is that we see it like this, at least, for quite some time.
We also believe that the most affected by all this are the web pages that appeared lower in the results. Now, it is more complicated for a person searching for a term to turn the page until they find something. The most benefited, without a doubt, are all the pages that appear in the first results.
In short, Google has changed the way it displays results again. After testing infinite scrolling for a couple of years, it seems that they have not been convinced and have returned to the original pagination. Keep in mind that there are alternatives and even search engines for the Deep Web.
