Google said today that it is altering the way it presents search results on mobile devices. Paid results now have a bigger “Sponsored” tag rather than the plain “Ad” tag they had before, and the name of each website is now mentioned at the top of each search result. The “size and form” of each website’s favicons are also being modified to improve visibility. The new search results style is currently available for mobile searches, and Google says it will test a “similar experience” for desktop searches “soon.”
The new “Sponsored” tag, according to the company’s blog post, is being implemented to guarantee that “ads are properly recognized” with a tag that is “prominent and obvious across various forms of sponsored content.” Meanwhile, increasing the prominence of site names and favicons in search results is intended to make it simpler to “identify the website that’s connected with each result at a glance.”
