➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: Google scroll

• 📜 Continuous scroll has come to Google Search on desktop

• 😮 The feature lets you scroll down several pages of search results at once

• ⏲ It’s intended to make googling quicker and more seamless

• 📅 Google Search got the update for mobile phones last October

You can say goodbye to page numbers on Google, as the search engine has introduced continuous scroll to its desktop client.

Google previously loaded discrete pages of results, which had to be clicked and loaded every time you wanted to generate more results. Now, it will load a page and automatically generate more results if you scroll right the way down to the bottom. 

You’ll be able to see up to six pages worth of results before loading more by clicking a “See more” button. It should let you more easily sort through the reams of webpages that pop up when you’re on the hunt for the best PS5 games or the PSVR 2 games list, for example.

You’ll be familiar with the system if you’ve ever googled anything on your phone. A continuous scroll update was rolled out for mobile devices last October, automatically loading more results when you hit the bottom of a search page.

Google @Google

Starting today, we’re bringing continuous scrolling to desktop in English in the U.S. so you can continue to see more search results easily. When you reach the bottom of a search results page, you'll now be able to see up to six pages of results.

10:12 PM ∙ Dec 5, 2022

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“We launched a redesign of the Search results page on mobile for a more modern experience that’s easier to scan and navigate,” Google said in a blog post at the time, adding that it wanted to make “browsing search results more seamless and intuitive”.

It’s unclear how useful the feature will actually be. According to SEO guru Backlinko, its study of 4 million Google search results showed only 0.64% of searchers actually clicked on a result from the second page. Continuous scroll may increase that proportion, however, as users are able to access the second page with one less click, making it easier to search further for what they want.

Google previously said that most users who “want additional information” will “tend to browse up to four pages of search results”, but it didn’t specify what constituted a person wanting additional information. From my own experience, I know I rarely look past the first page of results even if I don’t immediately see what I’m after. Often, it’s easier to re-search with a more specific query than to sort through tons of hits.

The continuous scroll update for desktops has been rolled out for English users in the US. It’s expected to come to other countries and languages in the future, just as the continuous search feature for mobile did.