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Google has unveiled a new feature of search results called ‘Instant Previews’ where it’s possible to view an image of each search hit before visiting the page, similar to that of Google Images.
Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and, unlike the previews in Google Images, the preview will be zoomed up to the ‘most relevant sections’, the company said in a post on the official Google Blog.
A magnifying glass is set to appear next to the heading of each research result which will trigger the pop up. Google said that in testing the new feature improved user satisfaction of the search results they ultimately clicked on by 5 per cent.
Google said examples of effective use of the preview including comparing results, pinpointing accurate content and checking for appropriate content such as a chart, picture or a list.
“We realized early on that this kind of experience would only make sense if it was lightning fast,” said Google product manager Raj Krishnan. “With Instant Previews, we match your query with an index of the entire web, identify the relevant parts of each webpage, stitch them together and serve the resulting preview completely customized to your search—usually in under one-tenth of a second.”
Google uploaded a YouTube video which shows the new Instant Preview in action:
