Google will now be adding a personalized Facebook-style news feed to its homepage in a bid to improve user experience with topics they may be interested in.
It will display news stories, features, videos and music chosen on the basis of previous searches by the same user.
Users will also be able to click a “follow” button on search results to add topics of interest to their feed.
One analyst said the move would help Google compete with rivals.
“Google has a strong incentive to make the search as useful as possible,” said Mattia Littunen, a senior research analyst at Enders Analysis.
“Facebook’s news feed is one of its main rivals. It is competing with other ways of accessing the content.”
Google has been testing a simpler version of its news feed in its smartphone app since December, and its full news feed will be added to its smartphone apps in the US first.
But the company has now confirmed it intends to add the feature to Google.com too.
Google is known for its sparse homepage, which, though mostly white space, has, according to the analytics firm Alexa Internet, become the world’s most-visited website.
The feed will include news stories from a variety of publishers, to avoid the so-called filter bubble effect, where people follow only content aligned with their preexisting point of view.
“To provide information from diverse perspectives, news stories may have multiple viewpoints from a variety of sources… and, when available, you’ll be able to fact check,” the company said in a blog post.
Items in the new personalized feed can be tapped or clicked to launch a G oogle search for more information.
“Search ads are more lucrative than in-feed ads such as Facebook’s,” said Mr Littunen.
“Google’s business is based on selling advertising, so this gives them more contact points with consumers.”
