[Update: Rolling out] Google Search adding site favicons to every result, starting on mobile

At I/O 2019, Google announced a number of new features for Search like podcast indexing and 3D AR objects. The latest is a redesign for mobile Search that reorganizes how each result is displayed and adds a site favicon to each card.

The goal of this visual redesign and addition of Google Search favicons is to “better guide you through the information available on the web.”

With this new design, a website’s branding can be front and center, helping you better understand where the information is coming from and what pages have what you’re looking for.

Instead of a website’s name and path appearing underneath the main page title, it is now the first line at the top of the card and black instead of green. Google is also adding site favicons to the top-left corner, while the AMP lightning bolt is to the right.

Advertising gets a similar treatment with the green “Ad” box now black and moved to that top-left position along with a black URL.

Update 5/24: Announced on Wednesday, this revamp of how Search results are displayed is now widely available. As of Friday, it’s live on several devices we checked, including Android and iOS, as well as the Google app and the mobile web. This new design is also applied to Android apps that are installed on your phone.

According to Google, the site icon plays a big role in “anchoring each result” and helps users “more easily scan the page of results and decide what to explore next.” It also helps site branding, with a guide available for admins on choosing a preferred icon for organic listings.

This design is also future-facing in light of new content formats, like AMP stories. For example, Google can add more action buttons and helpful previews to Search results cards.

The addition of Google Search favicons and this card redesign is coming first to mobile — presumably the web, as well as the Android and iOS Search apps — over the next few days, with the company implying that it will also come to the desktop web. Google has been A/B testing these tweaks for the past several months on both platforms.