Google Search Follow Characteristic

Google is rolling out a new search feature to let you follow topics. You can click on a follow button and Google will not only show you more of those topics in your Discover feed but also show you more of that topic in Google Search.

To be clear, this is different from the follow button on knowledge panels and the get updates button or the Google News feature. It is also different from Chrome’s follow feature.

This is a way to follow by query in the Google Search results.

Here is what it looks like:

After you click follow, Google may show you a box that says “News for you” that has perspectives from others on that topic.

Google may also push you content via the Google App over Google Discover and Google may also show you more of that content in your Discover feed.

Google will also add search queries that you follow from Google Discover to Google Search, like we covered Google testing before. In the image above, you can see the social creator labels in the bottom of the perspectives carousels.

Here is a zoom-in on that:

You can also turn off interest in the settings area:

Google said this follow feature is rolling out in the US English results on the Google app and mobile web in the coming weeks. Note, this should not work for queries on sensitive topics. Plus you can unfollow any topic at any time.

I should note that with all these announcements, the tone has been more around how Google has lost its way and is adding unnecessary features that are more a distraction than useful. That is what I am seeing from the community.

Forum discussion at X.