Last week there was a big outcry from recent changes Google had made with the implementation of favicons to better identify the reliability of search results. Unfortunately, the change led to some backlash for how it made it harder to differentiate ads from actual search results. Something which the company appears to have listened to as they announced via Twitter plans to experiment with different placements of the icons and advertisement labels to hopefully solve this issue for users.
Google also released a formal statement about the changes and their commitment to iterate and improve their changes over time and taking people’s feedback into consideration:
We’re dedicated to improving the desktop experience for Search, and as part of our efforts around this we rolled out a new design last week, mirroring the design that we’ve had for many months on mobile. The design has been well received by users on mobile screens, as it helps people more quickly see where information is coming from and they can see a prominent bolded ad label at the top. Web publishers have also told us they like having their brand iconography on the search results page. While early tests for desktop were positive, we are always incorporating feedback from our users. We are experimenting with a change to the current desktop favicons and will continue to iterate on the design over time.
Google has already started rolling out some changes and removing favicons from many search results, though given their current experimentation, expect things to change quite regularly. As long as Googling the “best entertainment site in the world” continues to lead to Critical Hit though, you know its search results can be trusted.
Wait, what do you mean it doesn’t? Can we trust Google with anything anymore?
Last Updated: January 27, 2020
