Google, known for its popular search engine and frequent discontinuation of features, is set to end the continuous scroll in search results for both mobile and desktop platforms.
The feature, which was introduced two years ago, will be replaced by a page-by-page lookup format.
Introduced on mobile in 2021 and later on desktop, continuous scroll allowed users to see an endless stream of search results. According to a report by Search Engine Land, Google has decided to roll back this feature. A spokesperson from Google confirmed that continuous scroll will be discontinued on desktop platforms starting today and will be phased out on mobile devices "in the coming months."
In place of continuous scroll, desktop users will now see traditional page numbers and a "Next" option below the "Goooooooooogle" logo. On mobile devices, a "More results" button is expected to be introduced, allowing users to load the next set of search results. Users will need to navigate to the next page after every 10 search results or so.
Google cited user satisfaction as a key reason for discontinuing continuous scroll. The company noted that automatically fetching search results did not lead to higher user satisfaction. This change aims to serve search results faster by loading only the results explicitly requested by users.
Google Search has recently been in the spotlight due to issues with its artificial intelligence (AI) features. The platform introduced several AI-driven enhancements to improve search results. However, one notable feature, AI Overviews, began displaying false and bizarre information, some of which was derived from unreliable sources.
Despite Google's claim that AI Overviews only showed information backed by top web results, the feature struggled to filter out satirical and nonsensical content. Consequently, Google has significantly scaled down the feature, which now appears in just 15 percent of search queries.