Google is testing a new homepage design that copies Discover’s news feed and widgets

Ben Schoon | Oct 13 2023 - 9:01 am PT

The Google.com homepage has largely been a simple search box for almost the entirety of the company’s history, but it seems it might be getting an overhaul sometime soon. Following similar tests last year, the Google Search homepage has been spotted testing out a new layout that’s nearly identical to Google Discover on Android.

The folks at MSPowerUser this week spotted the Google Discover-like feed appearing under Search on the company’s homepage. The feed appears with a list of recommended articles from across the web, showing headlines, featured images, and the site’s name.

Google has since confirmed this test to The Verge, noting that it’s currently being run for users in India and that it’s only an experiment for the time being.

The Google Discover feed first appeared on Android devices back in 2017 as the “Feed” in the Google app and attached to the Pixel Launcher. It later expanded in 2018 to the mobile web version of Search. In 2021 it more widely expanded to Samsung devices, and it also shows up within Google Chrome. At this point, Discover is a core part of the experience on most Android devices, showing weather, stock, and sports information alongside a feed of news articles that are based on your interest. This also appears within the Google app for iOS.

Like on the Google app for Android and iOS, the Google.com homepage with this specific new design would also apparently have a news feed joined by an “At A Glance” section that includes sports scores, stocks, and weather.

Notably, this isn’t the first time Google has tested out these new homepage designs. In 2022, we reported on Google testing out a “New Google.com” which had widgets for weather, stocks, trending searches, and more. But Google still hasn’t widely released any such homepage redesign.

Given the wide use of the Discover layout and these useful widgets on mobile devices, it makes a lot of sense for this to happen on the web side of things as a unifying of Google’s search experiences. That said, it is a radical change, and with Google.com being one of the world’s most-visited websites, it’s going to have significant impacts in one way or another.