Google Drops Instant Previews Over Low Usage

Apr 25, 2013 - 9:08 am 77 by
Filed Under Google

Google Instant PreviewsGoogle has officially dropped the Instant Previews from the search results due to "very low usage" by searchers.

Instant Previews launched in November 2010 and was tested with AdWords Instant Previews and even Sitelinks Instant Previews - heck, Google even made a feature in Webmaster tools to preview instant previews.

Now, Google has dropped the feature.

Google's Jessica said they removed it to "very low usage" and said removing it will streamline searches. She explained in the Google Web Search Help forums:

As we've streamlined the results page, we've had to remove certain features, such as Instant Previews.

Instant previews saw very low usage by our users, and we've decided to focus on streamlining the page to benefit more users.

Like with any feature Google removes, it upsets users. So there are a bunch of people not happy.

With this change, Google has changed how you access the "cached" page and how you share results. There is now a down green arrow that contains the "cached" link and "similar" link, when applicable and if you are logged in, it will also show a "share" link to share the result on Google+.

Google Green Arrow Down

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Ads

Google Ads Journey Aware Bidding Coming In 2026

Nov 17, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Testing Old Search Design - Or Is It A Bug?

Nov 17, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google App Image Search: Get Started With A Few Topics

Nov 17, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

When Google Search Snippet Description Go Wrong

Nov 17, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google Ads

Google Adds Top Combinations To Combinations Report For PMax

Nov 17, 2025 - 7:11 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console Performance Report Custom Annotations Rolling Out

Nov 17, 2025 - 6:58 am
 
Previous Story: Google Will Send Notifications To WWW & Non-WWW Webmaster Tools Accounts