Google adds “Stories” to search results as the search giant turns 20!

Happy Birthday Google!  You’ve changed the world – literally.

Google began 20 years ago with the goal of “organising the world’s information”, and while that might have been a tough task back then, imagine the challenge today with so much information out there online.

So it’s time to look to the future, and today, while celebrating their 20th birthday, three new features were announced to “enhance” Google search.

Firstly, an image heavy approach to search results.

We’ve already seen this a bit with search results including images but it’s about to go next level – check out this, what can only be described in today’s terms as a “story” – instagram style – as a search result on a celebrity:

Then there’s the Google “feed” – seen primarily by folks on Android phones – this is the collated set of “cards” which show things of interest to you.  That’s been renamed “Discover” and will now try and essentially show information before you ask for it.

It’s going to learn you better and try to show you information of interest to you moreso than just the news of the day.

Finally, if you’re already creeped out by what Google knows about you – strap yourself in.  Search results in future will remind you of sites you’ve already visited.  Rather than going through the same rabbit hole of search again, why not just skip back to where you were before?

It’s entirely logical, especially for those repeat queries – but some might have concerns about it tracking you, if that’s you – time to pair back those Google settings ASAP because it’s already tracking much of what you do online.

Happy Birthday Google – you’ve turned the world upside down, made some millionaires in the process and love it or hate it, Google has given us access to information we might never before have had at our fingertips.

Triva nights have never been the same.