Google Search ending ‘Notes’ experiment

Abner Li | Jul 16 2024 - 9:27 am PT

Back in November, Google Search Labs launched a Notes experiment and it’s now coming to an end with the feature ultimately not launching.

Notes in Search Labs was a cross between forums/Reddit, X Community Notes, and a comments section with a story-esque format. The idea was to let people leave “helpful tips about an article” in Search results or Discover.

If you signed up for the experiment, you saw “Add note” and “Notes” buttons everywhere, with the latter letting you view what people shared. It opened a grid of stories. You could Like, Share, and Save for later, with Google leveraging algorithmic protections and human review.

In ending the experiment, Google says “people want to hear from others like them and Notes was an exploration of how to help people share their knowledge right on Search.” Broadly, not all ideas in Search Labs are expected to launch, but Google made a big deal about Notes at the time, and heavily encouraged people to share them.

Notes will be available until the end of July.

Looking ahead, Google will continue to test “new ways to connect people to authentic, relatable voices and look forward to bringing some of our learnings from Notes into future product experiences.”

If you left Notes, you can download them using takeout.google.com until the end of August.

“Search Labs is our testbed for bold experimentation and as we’ve shared, not all experiments will launch broadly. We’ve seen in our research that people want to hear from others like them and Notes was an exploration of how to help people share their knowledge right on Search. We’re excited to continue testing new ways to connect people to authentic, relatable voices and look forward to bringing some of our learnings from Notes into future product experiences.”
Google spokesperson