Google has launched a new search experiment called Notes. Notes let users write a note about a specific search result they found on Google Search or on Google Discover. This note will be available for all the other users to read.
Notes will help users understand what other people have to say about the specific web page result. The feature aims to help people find the most relevant information on a search and learn how a specific web page helped others.
Notes will be initially available in the US and India. Users will soon start seeing buttons to add or view notes in search results on the Google app. If you check the notes of a result, you will see all the notes with different visual backgrounds. All notes will also have a link in the footer that points to the web page.
While posting a note, you will have the option to customize it with elements like text, stickers, and photos. You can also choose from different visual styles to make it look more interesting.
All the notes posted by users will be live within minutes unless a note is flagged for human review. Google also confirmed that notes for a link will be ranked dynamically based on their relevancy and search query. Google will use both algorithmic protections and human reviews to ensure useful and relevant notes reach users. Users will also have the option to report notes if they find it problematic.
Google will use the content in notes while ranking notes for a web page. It has no plans to use notes for the ranking purpose of web pages in Google search. The company confirmed that Notes have zero impact on the rankings of that site.
Google is also adding a Follow button in search. So, you can now follow queries and see batched results about those queries in search results and Google Discover. If there’s something breaking about those queries, you will get notifications. You can follow a query directly from the search by tapping a “follow” button.
The follow feature will be launched in US English on the Google app and on mobile Chrome and Safari in the next few weeks.
