Google is updating search and discovery with foldable ads, AI features, and more

Google is rolling out a series of changes to its search and discovery pages, which the company has shared across the board numerous advertisements. The updates will bring new AI-powered features to these key destinations, while also improving navigation and allowing users to fold ads on Google Search.

Considering that ads are Google’s main cash cow, the latter initially seems like a more surprising change. This feature will now allow users browsing Google search results to tap a new button, “Hide Sponsored Results,” to collapse ads at the top of the search results page.

However, although this action will remove ads from displaying on your screen, the sponsored results will not disappear completely. Instead, Google notes that the “Sponsored Results” tag will remain at the top of the screen as you scroll down. In a way, this makes the ads more prominent as they can follow you down the page, even though they are collapsed.

Additionally, Google says the “Sponsored Results” header can appear above and below AI Overviews — short, AI-written summaries that appear at the top of search results to provide quick answers. The “Sponsored Results” header for text ads will also appear at the bottom of the page, with all text ads grouped under the label. It can be collapsed with the same “Hide Sponsored Results” button if you want to focus on organic content.

Google says the new design makes it easier for people to move to the top of the page, and keeps the size of ads the same, as users never see more than four text ads in a group.

The new “Sponsored” tag will appear in other places across Google as well, including shopping ads, where they will be labeled as “Sponsored Products.”

Updates will be rolled out across desktop and mobile.

The company is also making other changes across search and discovery. When searching for sports information, such as searching for players or teams, you’ll now see a new ‘What’s New’ button that displays a feed of popular updates and news articles that can help you keep up with the latest. This will be rolling out to Google Search in the US in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the Discover feed on the Google mobile app will offer an AI-powered feature that will also help you keep up with trending topics that interest you. Here, the app will show short previews that you can expand to see more information, as well as other links to explore. Company He says This feature is designed to help users stay up to date with stories from a variety of publishers, but it also comes at a time when…Publishers are seeing a decline in search traffic Due to the shift to AI-delivered answers and consumers’ changing media habits.

This latest feature is now rolling out in the US, South Korea, and India.