Just over a year ago, Google officially announced that they had just launched a new “More results” button on mobile.
The feature allowed an additional set of results to load below what was already viewed, rather than using “Next” which would load a new page.
A difference in this new setup made more organic results load first, with Ads then being placed underneath (rather than on top).
Google then started testing similar functionality on Desktop just last month, hinting that Desktop would soon follow suit.
Now, I’m seeing a test (iPhone 7, Safari) which basically looks like a rollback of the feature we’ve gotten used to over the past year.
Is pagination on mobile about to make a comeback? Read more here: https://t.co/yZBs1Rgk4E pic.twitter.com/2Nfb3n2Q15
— Brodie Clark (@brodieseo) July 28, 2019
But this time instead of showing “Next” on the first page, Google is testing the same “More results” which just takes you to a new page (as it was previously).
Barry Schwartz documented this same functionality back in 2017, being seen with a big blue button with the text “See more results”.
So in summary, Google is keeping the same button and text in this test, but rolling back the loading of more results on the same page.
Could this be to give more exposure to Ads at the top of mobile results? I don’t believe so. Every test I’ve done does not show Ads at the top.
I do recall many complaints being made when the feature first rolled out, so maybe the big G has taken those into consideration.
Are you seeing this test on mobile?
