Google Page Annotation Links
When you are browsing a web page in the Google App native browser, Google can “extract interesting entities from the webpage and highlight them in line.” When you click on them, Google takes you to more search results.
I don’t think this is a new feature, I mean, I’ve heard of this before from Google. I just can’t find my write up on it. Maybe it was only Android before and it was named something else. That being said, this will lead to people going to your site, then Google injecting links on your site that will lead your website visits to Google Search.
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Hate it? Well, Google added a new opt out form - the only issue, it can take up to 30 days for the opt out form to work.
This is for individual Web sites to opt out. I guess there’s no way for users to opt out for all the sites they visit.
Via Nick Heer:
The results from a tapped Page Annotation are loaded in a floating temporary sheet, so it is not like users are fully whisked away — but that is almost worse. In the illustration from Google, a person is apparently viewing a list of Japanese castles, into which Google has inserted a link on “Osaka Castle”. Tapping on an injected link will show Google’s standard search results, which are front-loaded with details about how to contact the castle, buy tickets, and see a map. All of those things would be done better in a view that cannot be accidentally swiped away.
Maybe, you are thinking, it would be helpful to easily trigger a search from some selected text, and that is fair. But the Google app already displays a toolbar with a search button when you highlight any text in this app.
This is not cool, though I have to say that I don’t recall ever hearing about anyone using the Google app instead of just Safari or a third-party browser. But now I see that it’s #1 in the App Store in the Utilities category (beating Chrome at #2). Are people really using it now? Because of Gemini?
Previously:
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In my experience the Google iOS app is used by people who primarily want to use a mobile browser to find something via Google search, even if it's a site they go to repeatedly. This predates Gemini (which they probably have not heard of). The Google app has a search/address bar that is more prominent than the Safari address bar, and it has a "Home" icon that takes you to an even more prominent search bar. Google app users may not be comfortable working with bookmarks or multiple tabs in iOS Safari or Chrome (or in the Google app for that matter), even after a demonstration, although they may be able to use multiple tabs and bookmarks on a desktop browser to some extent (because they learned to do that before iPhones existed). Safari or Chrome may still be their default browser that opens when they click a link in an email or text message, but they "browse" from the Google app. They have little to no understanding of the difference between the internet, a browser, and a search engine. Related: they also want to or think they need to use the Gmail iOS app for their Gmail or the Yahoo iOS app for their Yahoo email, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I have the Google app installed because that was the way to use the Google Lens shortcut. But of course being Google, they have a similar but not quite the same Lens feature in Chrome.
As is usual for Google, Chrome and the Google app have a lot of overlapping functionality, and some unique functionality. The Google app is old and I believe pre-dates Chrome. It was the way for Google to bring their features to iOS before they managed to hijack the web with Chrome to the degree they have currently.
They seem to be pivoting back toward Chrome, but again being Google it's hard to tell where the focus is. The teams seem to of course be separate and competing. And as is also standard for Google today, they mostly exist solely to push their advertising money goals. Which bring us back around to the topic of this post.
