What you need to know
- Google seems to be pushing out its new homepage experience to users for another testing phase.
- Desktop users will be able to add widgets to the bottom of their Search page via an account option.
- The widgets include weather, news, and other useful bits of information while also being expandable upon hovering.
Google's once clean and clear homepage gains widgets as the new feature moves into another testing phase.
As pointed out to 9to5Google, Google seems to be pushing out this new feature for more users to test out. Some users notice a prompt saying, "Meet the new Google.com." If you are not signed in, users will be prompted to sign into their Google Account so they may edit their new homepage cards. 9to5Google explains that clicking on "Make this space yours" opens another window that enables you to customize the cards lining the bottom of your Search homepage.
"Meet the new https://t.co/Dw4J4gNDnM"!! I cleared Chrome's browsing history (cache, cookies, everything) and when I logged in back to Google, I got this on its homepage.I hope that this comes to @googlechrome's NTP.CC @9to5Google @NexusBen #9to5Google #NewGoogle pic.twitter.com/FPD7J0O7EhAugust 1, 2022
Users first started noticing Google's own version of Bing's Discover cards earlier this year. It appears to be a pretty barebones version of the Discover feed on Android phones when visiting the Search or Chrome app. The widgets available then included news, weather, Covid information, and more, which still appears to be the case.
During the initial test, the widgets lining the bottom looked more like rounded rectangles. This new testing phase that's slowly emerging shows squares with rounded-off corners, although it seems some early testers also saw cards of this shape. As 9to5Google speculates, settling on the square shape could be a way to include more of these informational squares on your display.
This would be a good thing if so, considering when the widgets had their first appearance in February, the number of widgets shown was based on your display size, meaning smaller desktop screens saw fewer widgets on their Google homepage. Also, it appears you're still unable to scroll through widgets at the bottom of the homepage, meaning what you see is what you get. However, you are able to hover over each widget individually to expand it to better view the information presented.
While a feature like this would probably be welcome among those on desktop computers using Google.com, it's unclear how expansive this new testing phase is, and none of our devices appear to show the cards.
