Google Search just got biggest upgrade in years — and it will save you a ton of time

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A new UI upgrade will make it easier to see search information at a glance

Google Search UI
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Google Search is getting a big upgrade that promises to make it easier to get the information you’re searching for at a glance. 

Google is currently testing a user interface change whereby when you hover your cursor over search results it will automatically serve up more preview text and, where available, image previews. This means you get more information at a glance without needing to click through to a new tab or webpage. 

What seems like a small upgrade is arguably quite a powerful one. Given the myriad of search results Google will show even on the most niche topic, sometimes you just want to get a snapshot of what a webpage might contain. But often the short block of text served under the search results doesn't really cut it and you then need to click on that link or open it in a new tab. 

That’s both time consuming and can be resource intensive for your laptop or desktop — the Google Chrome browser is a notorious memory hog when you have a lot of tabs open — especially if the webpage you open has a lot of ads or images. But being able to automatically preview more text and images by simply hovering over a search result will effectively overcome this issue, making the UI tweak a much larger upgrade than it might seem.  

Some of us on the Tom’s Guide team have seen the UI upgrade in action, but it hasn't rolled out to everyone yet. People have been posting about how they’ve seen the new preview feature already. On Twitter, Ishan Agarwal showed the new UI doing its thing, noting that while he liked it some could find it annoying. 

However, it’s not clear if Google will indeed roll the UI upgrade out to all its Search users. And if it does, the change could take some time to reach everybody. 

In the meantime, if you're looking at getting more out of Google’s web browsing capabilities, then check out our best Google Chrome extensions and our picks for the best Chrome apps you can get. 

Roland Moore-Colyer
Roland Moore-Colyer

Roland Moore-Colyer a Managing Editor at Tom’s Guide with a focus on news, features and opinion articles. He often writes about gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he’s also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering around London, often with a look of curiosity on his face.