Google is updating the ‘ads’ tag to ‘sponsored’
When search results are displayed on pages on mobile, perhaps one of the most user-friendly changes is the renaming of the “ads” tag to “sponsored”. You must have seen some links with “Ads” on the top left corner. Sometimes it is difficult to differentiate between advertising links and links from sources we rely on, especially on mobile.
Google is now changing the “ads” to bold with the label “Sponsored” next to ads appearing in search results. In addition, this label will be present in the row above the site URL, rather than showing it next to the URL as it does now.
Site names for search results
Another rejig is coming in the form of adding site names and big icons to search pages on mobile. “We are adding site names to search results on mobile so you can more easily identify the website associated with each result at a glance. We are also updating the size and shape of the favicon (a website’s logo or icon) that appears in search,” the company said.
Google says these changes will be rolled out to search ads to increase clarity and advertiser transparency at a glance. For example, when you search for “gadgets now” on mobile, you’ll soon see a big logo with a boulder “GN” along with a link to the search.
Google says that these search page updates are slowly rolling out on mobile. The company will soon start testing a similar experience on desktop as well.