Google’s fresh search results pages: love it or hate it?

Desktop results still show the domain name but mobile results don’t.

Google recently changed its desktop search results to look more like its mobile search results. This includes showing the site’s favicon, second level and top level domain, title, and snippet.

It also bolds the ‘ad’ tag ahead of ads.

I’ll be honest, it’s giving me a headache. The favicons are distracting, and I wonder if it actually makes it harder for people to distinguish organic listings from ads since now all listings have a graphic in front of them.

Following the change, Google search liaison Danny Sullivan noted the importance of domain names in search result listings:

Then why don’t you show them in mobile search results?

— Reglike.com (@Reglike) January 20, 2020

But, as you can see from my response, Google still leaves domain names off of mobile search results. So it seems that Google thinks they are notable, unless you’re on a mobile device where you’re even more likely to be duped. (Google does show domain names on ads on mobile search.)

If nothing else, Google has certainly elevated the importance of having a good favicon!