Google continues to be the world’s most-used search engine. So you might think that the search engine giant would roll out new features gently, not wanting to upset its massive user base, right? Not quite. Google introduces new features of its search engine with little warning and even less explanation of how to use them. The Instant Preview, Wonder Wheel, Timeline, and Date Ranges features are prime examples. What are they all about? Read on to find out.
Instant Preview
You’ve probably stumbled upon Google’s new Instant Preview feature by accident. The feature consists of thumbnail snapshots of full-length web pages that appear on the search page itself — to the right of your search results. Although Instant Search is supposed to be activated by clicking the little magnifying glass icon to the right of the title of a search result, clicking anywhere within the search result’s descriptive text will turn on the feature as well. Instant Preview thumbnails are supposed to save you time by allowing you to view a tiny version of a Web site before actually visiting it.
The problem is that the thumbnail previews are sometimes so large that, depending upon your monitor’s size, they can somewhat obscure the list of search results, leading to annoyance as much as help. The good news is that you can deactivate Instant Preview temporarily by clicking the magnifying glass icon next to any search result. The bad news is that, currently, there’s no way to permanently deactivate Instant Preview.
Wonder Wheel
The Wonder Wheel is another new search tool that Google has said next to nothing about, and because it is hidden under the More Search Tools link in the left-hand sidebar of Google, you may miss it entirely. That’s unfortunate because, unlike Instant Previews, this is one tool that’s both useful and easy…