Google is currently testing a much more extensive start page on the desktop. Instead of simply enabling a search, there are also a number of widgets available. Information about the weather, films and series as well as share prices are displayed as small cards.
Google: Home page spotted with widgets
Google’s home page is actually considered to be fairly reduced: in addition to the Google logo and a few links on the edges, users are not further distracted. It is uncertain whether this will remain the case in the future. In the USA, the group has apparently decided to conduct a test in which various Widgets are placed prominently on the home page.
So far, the test has only appeared in the desktop version of Google Search (source: 9to5Google). Widgets can now be found at the bottom edge, which show information about the current weather, for example. In addition, Google has come up with a “trending” map and recommends popular films and series. You can also find news about the corona virus and local events. One of the cards provides information about share prices. The number of cards probably depends on the size of the screen.
Since the widgets can also distract, Google thought of a switch, which you can use to hide yourself. The content itself should be based on the “previous activity” of the respective user. It is therefore quite possible that there are more widgets in addition to the ones mentioned.
It doesn’t always have to be Google, as our video shows:
New home page: Google Discover on desktop
The widgets are strongly reminiscent of what is already on smartphones known as Google Discover is. When it was introduced in 2018, however, Google said that Discover would not also appear on the desktop. Apparently, this has now been abandoned, although so far it has only been a test. It is not known whether this will be introduced worldwide in the future.