Google is introducing “continuous scrolling” on a desktop so that users don’t have to click multiple times across pages to find relevant search results, a feature the company has offered on mobile for some time. It is important to note that users should not mistake continuous scrolling for infinite scrolling. With continuous scrolling, users can see up to six pages of results by scrolling down before seeing the “more” button to find more results.
On mobile devices, Google limits continuous scrolling to four pages of search results at a time.
Google has historically taken a “pagination” approach to search results. This means that previously when users scrolled down the search results page and wanted to see more results, they had to click on the page number at the bottom.
This new feature also provides more visibility for sites that don’t rank high enough to make it to the first page, as people tend to avoid the second page and rarely look at the pages that follow. Hence the online joke that the best place to hide something criminally damaging is the second page of Google search results.
This change comes at a time when many users have complained about the declining quality of Google’s search results. In response, Google has made a number of changes, including making search results more intuitive, and in September it introduced a feature that surfaces results from Reddit and Quora under a section called “Discussions and Forums.
While many of the features have a mobile-first design, Google is also working to enhance desktop search. For example, the company is testing widget-style cards on the home screen that will give users access to information like weather and stocks at a glance.
