Google has announced several changes to its Google Suggest search feature. If you aren’t familiar with Google Suggest, it is the feature that automatically pops up related search terms as you type a search into Google. According to Google, the new changes are designed to make Google Suggest faster and more helpful to users.
Suggestions on the results page
Up until now, Google Suggest has only shown suggestions based on your original search input. Now, when you enter a search term while already on a search results page, Google will make suggestions that relate to the current results page also. This is designed to help user quickly refine searches to get exactly what they want.
Personalized suggestions
Google estimates that about a quarter of all signed-in searches are repeats from the past month. I’m sure you’ve forgotten to bookmark a page and tried to replicate a previous search in order to find it. Going forward, if you are signed in with your Google account and you have the Web History option enabled, Google might actually show some of your relevant past searches as you type in the search box. These new personalized suggestions are designed to make repeat searches faster and easier. One nice feature of the personalized suggestions is that you can actually remove a personalized suggestion that you don’t like by simply clicking “Remove”.
Navigational suggestions
Often times you might be using Google to try and navigate to a particular website. If Google thinks that this is the case, Google Suggest will list the site and send you directly there if you click on the link.
Sponsored links in suggestions
The final addition to Google Suggest is the inclusion of sponsored links in the suggestion box. Thankfully, anytime a sponsored link is included in your search suggestions, Google will give it a colored background and mark it with the text “Sponsored Link”. Sometimes a sponsored ad is just what you’re looking for, but it is always nice to know when a listing is a natural link or an ad.
