Google testing mobile like Discover feed for desktop homepage

For years, Google’s home page has held its position as the most visited web page on the planet and is often praised for its speed, but if the tech giant decides to roll out Discover Feed, it might affect the loading times and potentially affect the user experience for some.

Here’s what the new feed looks like. (Image Source: MSPowerUser)

First spotted by MSPowerUser, Google seems to be offering no toggle to turn off the Discover Feed for now, but things may change in the future. The publication also noted that the interface looks similar to Microsoft’s search engine Bing, which has a similar Discover-like feed that can be customised or disabled according to user preferences.

Google has already integrated search with the address bar in its browsers, with other popular options like Firefox, Brave and Edge offering the same functionality. While there are people who prefer visiting the home page to make a search query, most people on mobile and desktop prefer to type in the address bar itself.

However, this is not the first time Google has experimented with its homepage. Last year, the company briefly displayed Discover-like cards that appeared at the bottom of the search bar. While it did not roll out to everyone, Google offered the option to toggle it on or off.

In 2005, the company launched iGoogle – a customisable version of its home page with widgets. Users could choose between a wide range of widgets that displayed information like weather, stock prices, news, quotes and games to name a few. Used by millions worldwide, the tech giant shut down the service in 2013 without any explanation.