While Google Search has become eponymous for “online search”, the company has not stopped innovating upon the capabilities of the service. Most recently (as of this writing, of course) one improvement that the company is making is to give more content a bit more context before a user clicks through to a potential threat.

Let’s go into what this new update will look like on your Search results pages.

The Google Page Widget

With its rollout beginning on February 2nd, your Google Searches via a desktop, mobile device, and the Android mobile app probably now offer a small widget that provides a look at the website each result directs to.

Here’s how it will purportedly work:

You will soon notice (if they haven’t already caught your attention) small three-dot menus appearing next to your search results. These menus, if clicked, will give you more information into the website the result has pulled up.

This information will include things like a blurb about the website the link directs to—if available, coming from Wikipedia, and if not, based on Google’s own analysis when the site was indexed—as well as whether the website offers a secure HTTPS protocol connection and if a link is an ad.

Here, for example, is what appears when you check the link for Facebook:

From this, we can see that Google has confirmed that the connection to the website is secured, helping to protect our data, and that the link the user has inquired about was the result of their search, not placed there as an advertisement.

Moving forward, this utility may be able to help your users make more secure choices when browsing their search results. If you have access to it, we encourage you to explore it a little more yourself—and, if you’re ever concerned about how secure your business’ IT choices have been, to reach out to 415 IT at (415) 295-4898 for an assessment.