From time to time, and always discreetly, Google introduces some changes in the web interface of its search engine, that is, the one we see when we access its website to perform a search and, of course, the one in which the search results are displayed. It is not something usual, and they are usually changes that do not attract attention, to the point that they may even go unnoticed by most people. Sometimes they are aesthetic, but most of the time they have to do with the usability of both the search engine and the other services associated with the Google account.
Google introduces changes to the search engine interface
Google’s goal with these changes is that they do not make a huge difference visually, as this could cause a significant rejection in many users, who might even become suspicious about whether they have perhaps used a different search engine. A completely understandable policy, although the negative consequence is precisely what I mentioned before, that the introduction of changes may go unnoticed by the user.
Such could be the case, without going any further, of Google’s latest novelty regarding the search engine, which has begun to be deployed in the last few hours. A novelty that, although it does not provide new functions, does facilitate access to them. And, as you can see for yourself if you perform a search like this one, a new icon, shaped like a gear wheel, is displayed at the top right, giving access to a new menu:
- Search settings: You will access a Google settings section where you can specify various aspects related to search results, such as the number of results per page, autocomplete operation, personalized results (based on your history), and so on.
- Languages: From here you can quickly change the language of the interface and of the search results you wish to obtain.
- Hide explicit results: By default, Google will show you all the results associated with a search, but by selecting this setting you will avoid those with exclusive adult content.
- Advanced search: Although unknown to many users, Google has a very advanced search function, which can be used both directly with operators and other elements in the search box, and in an interface designed specifically for this purpose, which you can access from this entry in the new menu.
- Search history: You already know, because we have told you many times, that unless you configure otherwise Google keeps a history of the searches you have made. This menu entry will allow you to access it, either to review it, disable it, and so on.
- Your data: Do you want to see and manage the data that Google has about you? You can do it from here.
- Search in help: Google has a lot of help documentation and information about the search engine, from this entry of the new menu you will have access to this data.
As I mentioned before, we are not talking about new functions, all these elements were already available in Google before. However, this menu provides much quicker access to some of the functions and settings that we are most likely to want to access when using the search engine. The only thing that strikes me is that they have chosen to display it on the results pages and not on the main search engine page.