Google Search has always only shown you a limited amount of results on its first page. To dig deeper, you’d have to switch to a second, third, or n-th page, which we do rarely. Google initially released the ‘continuous scrolling’ feature for its mobile website in 2021. The company is now rolling out the continuous scroll on the desktop search result.
To understand Continuous scrolling better we need see, what are the alternatives we were following till now?

Pagination


The Pagination is an ordinal numbering of pages, which is usually located at the top or bottom of the site pages. In most cases, main pages and partitions use the pagination.
This works in pages that are information heavy, have complex architecture . For example, Google uses pagination on their Search results so that users can choose how deep into results they want to go.

Modal slideshow


It’s not often we recommend using modals (we debated whether to pop-up or not here, in fact), but a modal slideshow can be a valid alternative to infinite scroll. Sites such as Flickr use modal slideshow, in which the user clicks on an item to see slideshow of related items.


Load more


Load more is another popular alternative to infinite scroll. It involves showing users a certain number of results per page; below these results there’s a button that asks if users want to see more.

Continuous scrolling


Infinite scrolling, Continuous scrolling or perpetual scrolling, is a website design feature that loads content as an endless single page. We can save users from moving between multiple distinct pages (pagination) by infinite scrolling, and when users are in the mindset to explore then infinite scrolling sometimes considered good for browsing.

Conclusion


When you open Google in your browser, the new continuous scrolling might not be active yet, even if you live in the US. That’s because Google is rolling out the change in stages, making sure that everything works alright for everyone. In fact, the company first started experimenting with continuous scrolling back in May 2022, as spotted by Brodie Clark Consulting on its Google features timeline. Before then, search results became continuously scrolling on mobile as early as October 2021. But now Google is introducing a “Continuous Scrolling” feature on the desktop so users don’t have to navigate across pages to find the relevant search results. This is the best website design decision taken by Google UX team.