Is this the final look, or are there more tests coming?
It feels like sometimes Google just can’t stop tweaking its Discover layout, and last week, we saw the company add a weather information bar up top in the latest Google Search beta — even though it removed something very similar from the UI over a year ago. Now that effort seems to be expanding, as Discover also starts testing the presence of sports scores and stock prices.
Last week’s update saw the weather card occupy the top of the screen, just below the Google logo. But with the Discover redesign still in progress, 9to5Google notes that some users are starting to see boxes of information about the teams they follow in the same position. Screenshots show Google shrinking the weather bar to a smaller-sized box to accommodate the sports widget.
From all indications, the sports box will display match scores during and shortly after games and take the form of a news hub — with a “Tap for latest news” button — at other times. Interacting with it there opens up a browser tab with a Search for the team’s name, where you can find all the additional information you need.
If sport isn’t your cup of tea, or you’re more about business, Discover is also trying out a look that displays stock prices, instead. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen stocks like this on Discover, and late last year Google experimented with a scrollable banner at the top of the page with weather, stock, and sports information — alongside a “+” button, so users could choose the cards they wanted to see. Unfortunately, that interface didn’t see a general release — and it’s considerably different from what Google’s currently testing.
Google’s clearly backing away from the minimalist look it was going for when it first shrank the weather widget to a small pill-shaped button at the top left of the screen — before removing it entirely as part of tests for a cardless interface. It’s unclear why the company has decided to bring back this feature and more, but these changes are definitely welcome — we’re just curious if they’ll last.
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