Google’s ‘About this result’ panel will explain why each link appeared in your search

Abner Li | Jul 22 2021 - 11:08 am PT

At the start of this year, Google introduced an “About this result” panel to learn about the sites that appear in Search. That feature will now tell you why you’re seeing a specific result.

In addition to information about the “Source” publication — namely a Wikipedia description, you will soon see a “Your search & this result” card at the bottom of “About this result” when you tap the overflow menu on web and desktop.

Google is surfacing “some of these most important factors used” by Search to show results, specifically four:

Matching keywords: A simple, but important, factor Google uses to determine if information is relevant is when a webpage contains the same keywords as your search.
Related terms: Google also looks for terms that our systems determined are related to the words in your query. If you search “how to cook fish in the oven,” we’ll also look for pages that have related terms like “bake” and “recipe.”
Looking at links: When other pages link to a page using similar words as your query, that page might be relevant to your search. It can also be a helpful indicator of whether online content creators tend to regard the page as useful for that topic.
Local relevance: Our systems also look at factors like the language you’re using to search as well as your country and location, to deliver content relevant for your area. For example, if you search “What day is trash pickup?” it’s helpful to get results that are applicable to your city or state.

The company sees this information as helping users “decide what result is useful for them,” and that it’s also used to imbue useful Search tips on how to refine your query.

It’s first rolling out in English stateside before coming to more users in the “coming months.”