A flexible way for Google users to mark and rediscover web content

Mar 8, 2010

Google says it has introduced a new feature in search that makes it easier for users to mark and rediscover their favourite web content — stars.

Published: 08 Mar 2010

Google says it has introduced a new feature in search that makes it easier for users to mark and rediscover their favourite web content — stars.

The stars, which will be situated to the right-hand side of every search result for users who are signed into Google with their Google Account, allows users to click it once after which Google will save the starred item and will show it at the top of users’ search results next time they search for the same topic.

“With stars, you can simply click the star marker on any search result or map and the next time you perform a search, that item will appear in a special list right at the top of your results when relevant,” stated the company on its blog.

“The great thing about stars is that you don’t have to keep track of them. You don’t even have to remember whether or not you starred something. Simply perform a search and you’ll rediscover your starred items right when you need them.”

Any starred items will also be synchronised with Google Bookmarks and the Google Toolbar, providing a central location for users to manage their stars.

This way one can always see the list of starred items in one place and easily organise them. Even beyond the results page, while browsing the web users can quickly click the star icon in Toolbar to create a bookmark, and those pages will start showing up in the new stars feature.

Stars in search replace SearchWiki.

“In our testing, we learned that people really liked the idea of marking a website for future reference, but they didn’t like changing the order of Google’s organic search results. With stars, we’ve created a lightweight and flexible way for people to mark and rediscover web content. For people who like annotations, we have Sidewiki, a more powerful way for people to contribute and discover helpful information next to pages across the Internet. All your existing SearchWiki edits will be preserved with your Google Account.”