Discover makes ‘Posts on Google’ more prominent, tweaks sports cards

Abner Li | Mar 26 2021 - 9:10 am PT

Over the past week, Google Discover has made two tweaks to the feed’s design. The first sees Posts on Google get a more prominent Discover layout, while sports carousels have been removed to improve usability.

Brands, organizations, and figures can use Posts on Google to publish messages, images, videos, and GIFs directly to Search, specifically their claimed Knowledge Panel. Introduced in 2016 and later expanded, these direct announcements can often be longer and more immediate than the carousel of tweets.

At the start of 2019, these Posts started appearing in Google Discover. They are now getting a visual upgrade that allows more text to be displayed compared to before. The brand name and profile avatar appear in the top-left next to a verified shield. The bottom shows the origin as “Google,” while you now directly like and share.

Compared to before, the body of a Post now appears before the image in a rather effective change that greatly distinguishes it from news articles and evergreen content.

Meanwhile, Google has made it so that sports cards for match results are no longer followed by a carousel of related stories. Rather, one or two mini cards are now shown in a likely move to address how swiping on the feed to the left of Android homescreens can sometimes accidentally bring users out of Discover. Less content is shown as a result, but this is better for usability.