If you’re also the type of person who is reluctant to click on questionable links in your search results, here’s some good news: Google’s renewal its own search engine to give us more information about the results we see before we get those risky clicks.
Almost all English-language search results will have a new widget intended to tell something about the site to which it actually leads. The update is rolling out today on desktop, mobile, and in the Google Android app for US searchers.
When the update comes your way, you may see a new little ellipse in the top right corner of a particular search result. Tapping on this will bring up a simple blurb about the actual site the result leads to – sourced from Wikipedia, if available. The new panel will also tell you if your connection to this site is “safe, ”Which means it uses the HTTPS protocol. (You can read all about what that is and why it matters here.)
If the site doesn’t happen to have its own Wikipedia page, Google says it will try to show ‘extra context’ about the site it has at hand, such as when the search giant first indexed the website. And if you’re one of the many, many people who feel the ads in Google Search looks a bit too much Just like the actual search results, you’ll be happy to hear that these new blurbs will also tell you whether a particular link is an ad or not.
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Whether you are likely to receive this update later in the day or – if you are located outside of the US – at an unknown time in the future, this is a good reminder to always be careful where you click.