Google Scraps Continuous Scrolling in Search Results

[webkit]

Does google actually have any users left to know or care if they switched from continuous scroll to paged results? I don't think I personally know anyone who uses their search anymore.

Seriously? Google search remains extremely popular. Major analytics companies typically put Google's search market share in the 85% to 90% range with Bing coming in a distant second.

Also helping to keep Google search popular is the fact that it's the default search on major browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Seriously? Google search remains extremely popular. Major analytics companies typically put Google's search market share in the 85% to 90% range with Bing coming in a distant second.

Also helping to keep Google search popular is the fact that it's the default search on major browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

I wonder where they'd be without pumping tens of billions, annually, into Apple coffers to be the default on iPhones

 

[ashdelacroix]

I remember the days when Google was so pinpoint accurate and reliable. I often didn't bookmark URLs because I knew how to find them in Google and they never let me down. But that is the past. The results now change in surprising ways and there is not that trust in Google that there once was. At one point, it was such an optimal experience, but they tinker and change things, mainly to meet their advertising objectives, that it is now an advertising platform with a search engine attached, and not, as was, a search engine supported by ads. What a shame.

 

[turbineseaplane]

it is now an advertising platform with a search engine attached

This ^^

Honestly, if one hasn't left yet, they should start looking and thinking about what's next

I guess...unless wants their "search" to be just a bunch of results that are paid for?

 

[usmaak]

Google search used to be great. It used to return what you actually search for. Now try searching on an exact phrase and get back a bunch of worthless crap anyway. I kind of miss the days when I used to get back results on what I searched for, instead of the advertising Google thinks I need to see.

 

[zarmanto]

So after this change, we should just immediately go to the second page to avoid the first page of ad-supported and otherwise bad search results?

I concur with the sentiment -- but I just tested that, as I had a hunch which way this was going to go... and I suspect you already know what I'm getting at. Unfortunately, if your search term is in any way interesting to sponsors, their ads will simply be interspersed throughout every single page of results.

So now, Google is only barely better than those paginated ad-filled "stories" which have about three or four sentences on each page along with some variation of "... but you'll never guess what happened next!" at the bottom of every single page. (sigh)

 

[Superhai]

I don't like endless scrolling for one simple but for me important reason: visiting a link and going back, reloads only the first results back, so if you are a bit down on a list you have to rescroll.

I have for years anyway used ddg for searching and occasionally `!g` for jumps to google. In the beginning google gave more accurate results, while duckduckgo (and bing) tried to be "smart" and infer (assuming that I am looking for what most people search for with the keywords instead of being precise) what I try to search for. But the result is only that you have to use lots of minuses and quotation marks for the keywords to get a meaningful result. Today I feel google has become the same boat.

And don't even start about the so called "ad" results, which seem to only be links to scam sites.

 

[Tdude96]

Seriously? Google search remains extremely popular. Major analytics companies typically put Google's search market share in the 85% to 90% range with Bing coming in a distant second.

Also helping to keep Google search popular is the fact that it's the default search on major browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

I'm aware of the numbers, yes. The first sentence was facetious. It does amaze me how many people continue to use google when there are so many superior alternatives. I'd be curious to see what would happen to the numbers if it was no longer the default search option on phones and if Siri stopped misunderstanding people and talking about what she found on the web.

The second part was not in jest. I'm personally not aware of anyone who still uses google search. Other google services, yes - mail, drive, youtube, etc. And there have definitely been a lot of very vocal people about not using google search anymore. It's like veganism or crossfit, when they do it, you hear about it.

 

[MacBH928]

If you are pro privacy here are better options:

Brave Search

duckduckgo

Startpage

I don’t think I’ve ever found any useful information on the 3rd page or more of results.

I rarely find useful information on the 2nd page.

And more often than not, I don’t find any useful information at all on any page using Google. It may be “the best” but it’s still virtually useless.

what do you use then?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Ed nicely shows how bad Google has become here...

I mean, seriously -- why support and use products from a company that is this awful?

 

[warstory91]

This is likely to focus more attention on their Gemini AI search results at the top. By limiting the size of the page, it raises the property value of that top spot. Nothing Google does is accidental.

 

[Foxglove9]

Great news. I miss being able to jump around pages on the search results.

 

[coolfactor]

Good! Continuous scrolling in other search engines is very annoying. And you can't tell which "page" a result falls on when doing SEO work.

 

[glsillygili]

Good. every time I would try and use google I would find myself scrolling into some weird section that was mostly irrelevant and I had to manually click show more results anyway.

 

[Localcelebrity]

I'd be shocked if this isn't solely motivated by a desire to increase ad impressions at the top of the page.

 

[rmariboe]

The truth is that continuous scrolling is much more resource heavy than pagination, for everything including servers, clients and network.

How so?

 

[rmariboe]

Like why not just load the 10 first hits, and then load additional hits in the background and populate them as we scroll?

I believe you've just described the backend of continuous scrolling 😅

 

[rmariboe]

Soon the EU will impose some law that will restrict endless scrolling because it is causing addiction to teenagers anyway. Only half kidding

It's already drafted. Not kidding.

 

[rmariboe]

Seriously? Google search remains extremely popular. Major analytics companies typically put Google's search market share in the 85% to 90% range with Bing coming in a distant second.

Also helping to keep Google search popular is the fact that it's the default search on major browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Not in the EU though since default search engines were banned along default browsers 😅

 

[SBlue1]

Stopped reading at "Google scraps...", it would be news if Google didn't scrap something!

Too bad Google won't scrap the hoovering of personal data.

Would you prefer to pay for google instead of having ads?

 

[icanhazmac]

Would you prefer to pay for google instead of having ads?

I would wholeheartedly prefer to pay money for my services and not have my data be the payment. Unfortunately I believe that even pay services sell your data, they are just double dipping.

 

[Nermal]

It's Fandom for me. That website makes my skin crawl.

Tip: If you end up on a Fandom page, edit the URL from "fandom.com" to "antifandom.com" and it'll take you to a page with the same content, but a lot less rubbish.

 

[subjonas]

I loathe continuous scrolling.

Websites in general, not just search engines, should stop using continuous scrolling...

Why?

 

[picpicmac]

The pagination of search results showed up for me a little while ago.

I too despise the continuous scrolling.

 

[Reason077]

Does google actually have any users left to know or care if they switched from continuous scroll to paged results? I don't think I personally know anyone who uses their search anymore.

Which search do you use, out of interest? I’ve tried (and still sometimes use) Bing and DuckDuckGo but found them to be a sub-par either in quality of results (especially locally-relevant search results, or when searching for some highly specific topic), or the general UX of the results page.