In December, Google introduced topic filters in search results as part of a carousel overhaul on mobile, and it’s now coming to desktop.
Search has long shown result filters for images, maps, shopping, video, news, books, flights, and finance. Last year, Google added related topics, denoted with a plus sign, which “help you dig deeper or discover something new about a specific topic.”
For example, if you search for “dinner ideas”, you may see topics such as “healthy” or “easy”. Tapping on a topic adds it to your query, helping you quickly narrow your search results with less typing. Topics are dynamic and will change as you tap on them, giving you more options and helping you explore new areas. For example, if you tap on “healthy”, you might see “vegetarian” or “fast” appear next.
In recent days, these theme filters have appeared on Google desktop search results. An “All Filters” drop-down list, which is necessary because nothing is fixed anymore because everything is sorted by what Google deems “useful” for each query, appears on the right along with Tools, which now appears closer to the edge of your screen and may require scrolling in an unfortunate inconvenience
Meanwhile, on mobile (web and app), Google shows a carousel design devoid of accompanying icons after introducing them a few years ago. On a smaller screen this removal is quite as you can see a few more bullet points per screen, while it makes the carousel more subtle and almost disappears into the background. It is unclear if this change is widely rolled out.
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