Google Search Spotted Testing a Tweaked UI to Show Image Previews, Expanded Text

Google Search is testing a UI tweak on desktop that shows image previews if you hover the mouse pointer over a search result, as per a report. The new tweak also allows Google Search to show expanded text previews on mouse hovers, the report adds. The new feature is said to have appeared for some users, but hasn't been rolled out widely. It is unclear if this feature will roll out for more users anytime soon.

The tweaked UI seems to be a way to give users more details about a search result without having to leave the Google Search page, as per a report by 9to5Google. The report says that the new UI of Google Search worked in Incognito Mode on Chrome initially, but disappeared soon after.

Google Search's new UI seems to be appearing for some other users as well, including tipster Ishan Agarwal, who shared a video of what searching with the tweaked UI looks like. The tweaked UI hasn't rolled out for us yet.

The image previews on Google Search don't seem to appear for every link, and some links show a slightly expanded text preview instead. This could be a useful tweak as it provides people more context before they open a site. The UI tweak with the previews makes the Search results page look slightly cluttered though, and could even discourage people from opening and reading an entire article.

Google at its L10n event on Thursday also announced that users can now switch search results between English and four additional Indian languages — Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, and Marathi — besides Hindi. The ability to switch between English and Hindi in search results was introduced by Google back in 2016. The search giant is also upgrading its search engine to understand which language content to show even when a local language is typed in English. This will roll out in Bangla, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu next month.

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