Google Introduces Similar Page Suggestions

Google is constantly trying to customize search results and make them more relevant to each individual user. It’s also adding more info to the search results page, besides the regular entries. One feature that has actually been around for many years, but that gets rarely used, is the ‘Similar’ websites link. This is probably part of the reason why Google now features a “Similar Pages” OneBox for some searches in the US.

“We've offered a ‘Similar’ feature on results for a while now as a way to discover new, useful sites, but it hasn't been too visible. Since we've been continuously improving this feature and we think it's really useful, we're now going to start showing these alternative sites more prominently. Starting this week, for queries where similar sites are likely to be helpful, we’ll display a list of ‘Pages similar’ at the bottom of the results page,” Doantam Phan, software engineer at Google, wrote.

The box now shows up at the bottom of the search results page listing a few sites that may be similar to the one you searched for. You can go directly to any of them or click to see even more similar websites. It’s a welcomed addition and its positioning on the page is telling. If you’ve reached the end of the search results page and still haven’t found what you’re looking for, an alternative site or query may be just what you need.

The functionality itself is nothing new, it lists the same sites Google would have shown if one were to click on the ‘Similar’ link next to plenty of results. But it is much harder to ignore and it should help out in cases where the user wouldn’t have searched for similar sites manually. The feature is being rolled out gradually in the US.