Google Search App Now Displays Webpage Device Compatibility in Results

The search giant on Monday has updated its Search app for Android and iOS devices. The updated app indicates to users if a webpage will work properly on their device or not.

The new feature essentially uses an algorithm that detects page compatibility with plugins on the device. As Google also explained on its announcement page, if page content is mostly-Flash based, the search results will contain a note (see left) saying 'May not work on your device', as Adobe Flash is not supported on iOS devices and on Android 4.1 or higher. It doesn't mean that users will not be able to access that particular webpage, as the option to try the page will still be available.

"A common annoyance for web users is when websites require browser technologies that are not supported by their device. When users access such pages, they may see nothing but a blank space or miss out a large portion of the page's contents," said company on its blog post.

With the update, Google is also promoting websites to use HTML5 since it is universally supported, says company. Last month it had introduced the resources for modern web development like the Web Fundamentals and the Web Starter Kit for developers.

Last week, Google had updated its Search app's voice recognition for Android and iOS to fix misinterpreted words with quick commands, which means that if a query or command was misheard by Google Now, users can now correct that particular word and the app will attempt to parse the command again. The feature is currently in a rolling out phase.