What you need to know
- Google appears to be testing out widgets for desktop search.
- The widgets display information such as weather, trending news, entertainment, and more.
- It's unclear how widely available the new widgets are.
The Google Search page on desktop appears to be getting a new feature in the form of widgets, although don't expect anything like the Discover feed on the best Android phones.
9to5Google noticed the widgets appear on some of their accounts, sitting at the bottom of the Search home page. The widgets form a row and appear to cover different topics per card, such as weather, trending news, "what to watch," Covid information, and more.
It appears that hovering over one will expand it to display more information, while clicking the widget will open up a results page. Below the widgets, Google displays your location, a notice that the information displayed is based on past activity, and a toggle on the far right to hide content in case you'd rather not have the widgets crowding up your Search page.
Source: 9to5Google
According to 9to5, the number of widgets that appear depends on the size of your display, and there's no way to cycle through additional ones without having a bigger display.
It seems that the cards are not yet widely available at the moment, with only a few accounts from 9to5Google and Android Police showing them. So far, no one has noticed them on Android Central.
The new widgets feel a bit like the Bing desktop experience (yes, some of us still use Bing), which features a row of cards that you can scroll through and even minimize. Vertically scrolling on the page will also bring up more cards similar to Microsoft Start, which is essentially Redmond's version of the Discover feed.
For now, it's unclear if Google is actually planning to expand its widgets to everyone, or if it will eventually enable users to scroll through content.
