It was in 2017 that Google introduced 'Google Feed' to surface relevant content for users, even when they're not searching for anything.
Residing under Google' search box in the mobile app, it has grown to have more than 800 million monthly users, who use it to keep up to their interests.
As part of Google's shift in how in thinks about search, the company rebrands Feed to 'Discover'.
Discover here is not just a rebrand, as Google is also giving it an updated look and some additional features.
"Since launching the Feed, we’ve made it our goal to help you uncover fresh and interesting content about things that matter to you. Now, we’re giving the feed a name that reflects this mission: Discover. With this new name comes a fresh design that makes exploring your interests easier than ever."
First of all, the personalized news feed still shows the same listings of topics and upcoming events. However, users can see even more tailored contents that are based on their interests.
The first prominent Discover feature, is the topic headers that allow users to explore various topics. "Next to each topic name is a Discover icon, which you’ll also start to see in Search for an ever-growing set of topics. You can tap 'Follow' to start seeing more about that topic in your experience," said Google.
The Discover page presents interests in the form of topic cards, just like it did before in Feed. The difference is that Google is showing a control icon on the bottom right.
"Just tap on the control icon to indicate that you want more or less content on that topic. You’ll continue to see content from a range of sources on any given topic, helping you explore new ideas surrounding your interests.
Users interests are located front and center, and contents that go underneath it are gathered from users' Google search results over time. So, for example, if users' hobby is hiking, they will see "hiking" to show up as a new topic in Discover.
Users can simply tap it to bring up a dedicated topic page that lists results that are focused on hiking, such as suggestions of places for hiking, tips and tricks, ways to explore the area and more. "You’ll find more videos and fresh visual content, as well as evergreen content - articles and videos that aren’t new to the web, but are new to you," said Google.
And using the Topic Layer in the Knowledge Graph, Discover can predict users' level of expertise on a topic and help them further develop those interests.
If they're learning how to play guitar, for example, they may see beginner content about learning chords. But if they're already a skilled musician, they may see videos on more advanced techniques.
But what makes it especially intriguing is that, Discover is not anymore limited to Google's app, as it can also appear on Google's mobile homepage as well.
Google also plans to make Discover have multilingual support.
"Think of it as your new mobile homepage where you can not only search, but also discover useful, relevant information and inspiration from across the web for the topics you care about most," said Google.