Google has announced that it is adding new features to Activity Cards.
Activity Cards were introduced back in January 2019, with the intention of making searches easier when you are revisiting the same or similar areas.
If you are signed into Google, you can pick up where you left off previously with ‘Your related activity’ cards that show previous searches and the pages you clicked onto as a result of those results.
You can also mark pages to return to later.
Now, the search giant has introduced a number of new features, with particular emphasis on three search areas: jobs, recipes and online shopping.
Jobs
As well as taking you back to older searches, the related activity cards can now update to show new related listings that have been posted since the last time the user searched.
This can help the jobseeker to tell at a glance if new relevant positions have been posted since their last search, saving them from having to scroll through old listings that they might have already viewed.
Recipes
Google has now updated the cards to show other relevant recipes based on your query.
The company says that if you are searching for chicken recipes, for example, the card will bring out other chicken recipes that you have recently visited.
It will also display thumbnails from each page or recipe to ensure that you can choose the one you are looking for.
Shopping
The Activity Cards would previously have shown the pages you had searched for and visited.
With the new update, they can now show products that you have been researching, even if these products are featured in an article you were looking at.
A product featured in the article could be linked in the card, allowing shoppers to quickly look through products.
Star ratings and price ranges can help the user to compare different products.
In a blog outlining the changes, Google’s search product manager InHan Kang said that they “make it easier to take the next step, whether it’s buying something useful, preparing a meal or finding a new job”.
