Paid results on Google will now carry a larger “Sponsored” tag rather than the simple “Ad” tag they used to display ad before, along with each website’s name listed at the top of each search result.
Along with this each website’s favicons will also be updated to make larger so they're easier to see.
This new format for search results is rolling out now on mobile, and Google says it plans to test a “similar experience” for desktop searches “soon.”
Google’s changes to the formatting of search results have occasionally been criticized for making it harder to tell where paid results end and organic results begin.
Google has encountered criticism over the years when rolling out changes to how the ads or sponsored results are displayed, with some saying that the changes over time have made it more difficult to distinguish the ads from the organic results.
Google’s paid results are still harder to distinguish than when the search giant used to use different coloured backgrounds, but switching from the two-letter “Ad” tag to the much larger “Sponsored” tag on mobile certainly seems to address this issue to a degree.
Google is changing how it formats search results on mobile, the company announced today. Paid results will now carry a larger “Sponsored” tag rather than the simple “Ad” tag they had before, and each website’s name is now listed at the top of each search result.