Text can hold a lot of information. But for many people. Google search results pages (SERP) can be dull and boring.
The search giant has introduced a smarter image search page for mobile devices back in 2017. This included more accessible details where results can show more information to identify the kind of image users are looking at.
In an update, Google is making it even more capable.
First of all, images are bigger, horizontally aligned with less restriction on vertical alignment. The design makes it similar to Pinterest.
The design also introduces badges so users can quickly identify what the image is related to. The image results also show a brief description of the image along with the source website.
Clicking an image brings up a new preview page, which include some information regarding the picture.
And for mobile users, Google Search interface has also experienced a redesign which increases the number of image thumbnails displayed.
According to RankRanger that first spotted the change, there was a 183 percent increase - from 15.7 percent of all mobile page one search results containing image thumbnails to 44.5 percent.
What this means, users will see more image thumbnails when searching for something on Google.
"The proliferation of the thumbnails on the mobile SERP does not appear to be a simple across the board increase in the SERP feature. Rather, the data indicates that the uptick is heavily due to the feature now being relevant to local queries on mobile," explained Mordy Oberstein from RankRanger.
Previous most notable increase in the SERP feature, occurred back in September 2016. At that time, mobile image thumbnails had gone from appearing on under 1 percent of all mobile page one SERPs to just over 10 percent.
With faster internet connection, people are expecting more things when accessing the web. And that includes when they visit Google.
Google's push to update how its search results look is in line with how the company is gradually overhauling its whole search experience. Here, the search engine aims for higher engagement and clicks by making the results less static.
At the same time, the change should also make people to purchase more from Google, based on it’s commerce ambitions. This way, Google can control the funnel, preventing users to go and purchase things on Amazon or eBay, for example. Linking up its image search with inventory and purchasing is another step in Google's strategy.
Bigger is better, and so is the number. After all, images can also put more colors to pages making experience more visually appealing.