Most people can picture the Google homepage in a matter of seconds if asked. You know what I’m talking about – the multicolored logo and a single search box on a white background. But now, Google (NASDAQ:$GOOGL) will be making changes to its homepage for the first time since 1996.
The changes will include adding Google’s interest and news-based feed to the home page. This feature has been around since 2012, when Google Now was first disclosed and released. And now it looks like that feature is moving onto the desktop version.
On Wednesday, Google announced that it would be adding more customization to the feed. How? Well, according to the California-based company, it will be through using its “advanced machine learning algorithms.” As a matter of fact, Shashi Thakur, the VP of engineering at Google, said that “you’ll see cards with things like sports highlights, top news, engaging videos, new music, stories to read, and more.” To simplify, it looks like Google’s new homepage will not only be news that is of interest to you but also what’s trending in your community and the rest of the world.
Keep in mind that the changes to the desktop have not been shown yet, therefore it’s difficult to determine what Google has planned visually. However, many speculate that Google will bring the Google Assistant to its homepage, although that has not been confirmed.
The reasoning behind the facelift is because Google is striving to be the place where you get all your news. While Google itself is not a news specific site, it does do a fantastic job at delivering the news to you, and knowing what sort of news you are interested in. Again, you can blame that on algorithms. Google collects data on pretty much everything you do. Think no one saw you search shirtless photos of your celebrity crush? Surprise! Google did – and they made a mental note of it.
Right now, it is unclear as to when these changes will move to the desktop, but on mobile via the Android and iOS Google apps, the changes are out in the United States and will be moving out internationally over the next couple of weeks.
Featured Image: depositphotos/wolterke
