Apps like Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok have led users to become addicted to doomscrolling, or continuously swiping down our screens. This behavior has become so popular that even Google implemented infinite scrolling in its search engine. However, the company has decided that it wasn't the best thing around.
A temporary experiment. As Search Engine Land points out, Google introduced continuous infinite scrolling in its search engine in December 2022 after implementing the feature more than a year earlier on mobile devices. Back then, Google mentioned that “with this update, people can now seamlessly [scroll], browsing through many different results, before needing to click the ‘See more’ button.”
An unknown impact. The decision would have theoretically influenced users to scroll past the traditional first page of search results when looking for the answer to their queries. It would have also affected click-through rates and ad positions. However, Google seems to have concluded that the feature wasn’t as beneficial as it initially thought.
Bye-bye infinite scroll. In any case, starting on Wednesday, Google will disable the infinite scroll feature on the desktop version of its search engine. The mobile search engine will also have this feature disabled “in the coming months,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land in a statement.
Faster results. According to Google, this will speed up search results and save loading time by not displaying additional results that users didn’t request.
An unpopular feature. Users weren’t convinced by the infinite scroll feature. In its statement to Search Engine Land, Google said that “loading more results automatically didn’t lead to significantly higher satisfaction with Google Search.”
Pages are back. If you still had the search engine with continuous scrolling enabled, you will soon no longer see it. Instead, a page bar will be displayed to allow users to access a numbered list of results pages, as it was before the introduction of infinite scrolling.
Image | Arkan Perdana
Related | The Psychology Behind Doomscrolling: The Trap Our Brains Are Programmed to Fall Into Again and Again
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