Google 'instant previews' go visual

Search giant Google has stepped up its "instant previews" feature, now giving users a visual sneak peek of search results when they hover their mouse over the results. User Experience Designer Jeromy Henry said this may be useful for people who cannot quite remember a specific page but can recognize it once they see it. "If you move your mouse over a search result, arrows will appear. Hover over them to see a visual preview of that result," Henry said in a blog post. The "Instant Previews" feature had been around since last year, allowing a user to click on the magnifying glass to the right of the result to see a visual overview of a page. But Henry said that with the new feature, a user no longer needs to even click. "Sometimes you’re searching for a page with a specific type of visual - like a seating chart when you want to buy baseball tickets - but can’t tell from the results page which one will have exactly what you’re looking for. Or you’ve already seen a specific page and would recognize it in an instant if you saw it again. You can now quickly glance at a preview of the page without having to click and see if it’s the page you want," Henry said. — TJD, GMA News