IndustryGoogle’s Next Big Change: Infinite Scrolling Search Results?

Google's Next Big Change: Infinite Scrolling Search Results?

Note: Update below

Google’s latest search experiment appears to be infinite scrolling search results. Infinite scrolling in Google basically means that you wouldn’t need to click on a page number or the Next link. Instead, as you scroll down, a black bar comes up, leading to the next page of Google’s results.

Google introduced what it calls instant scrolling when the company revamped Image Search in July.

Here’s a video posted on Search Engine Land that shows how it works:

And a screenshot of the bar in question (also via SEL):

google-scrolling.png

We haven’t contacted Google about this, but I guarantee their response will go something like, “At any given time we are running between 50-200 search experiments. You can learn more on our blog.”

Update: False Alarm

To answer the question in the headline: no, it won’t. We got it wrong. It’s not a new feature at all and was simply a browser extension.

Turns out, what we reported earlier today could be a new search experiment wasn’t. It was just a Chrome extension known as FastestChrome, which made it look like Google (which is perpetually testing new search features) might be testing out infinite scrolling.

In response to speculation around infinite scrolling, the Silicon Alley Insider posted a video (although the audio isn’t the best) featuring Google VP Marissa Mayer, in which she states why Google doesn’t offer infinite scrolling. Basically, she says that a small amount of results is much better than 3 million results.

Bing offers infinite scrolling in its image search, and as mentioned below, Google offers their own version of infinite scrolling for Google Images.

It still could be a cool addition to Google, at least for mobile. What do you think?

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