Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is testing a new “Discussions” tab within mobile search results, starting with sports queries.
- The feature allows users to comment, reply, and vote on comments, resembling platforms like Reddit.
- It’s unclear what Google’s long-term goals are for this new social and community experiment.
It’d be fair to say that Google Search has been having a bit of a mid-life crisis lately. Competition is creeping up from all quarters, especially from AI tools like ChatGPT, while regulators question whether Google has a dominant position. All of this is in the backdrop of waning user confidence in the quality of search results. Google has been experimenting with features like AI Overviews to maintain Google Search’s utility in our lives, and now, the company is trying to build a discussion forum within Search itself.
X user Nicholas McDonough spotted that Google has quietly launched Google Discussions in beta on mobile. This surfaces when users in the US search for a ‘team vs team’ query. Google presents the usual sports-related rich content, like the score and upcoming games, followed by the Discussions tab, where users can drop in comments. X user Glenn Gabe shared these screenshots for the feature:
Users can comment through their Google account, which will share their name and profile picture in the discussion thread. Other users can reply to specific comments, and even upvote and downvote comments. Users can filter through the Top comments or show all comments. When you click on a user, you will be taken to the person’s Discussions profile to see their posts.
As the beta tag clearly denotes, Discussions is in the early stages of development. Still, I can’t shake off the Reddit resemblance, especially with the upvote and downvote buttons instead of the usual “likes” that most social platforms start with. While Discussions doesn’t yet have an elaborate forum structure, it does add a social element to queries. It also makes a lot of sense for sports in particular, given the social nature of the activity, as sports fans are likely to want a forum to talk about their favorite team or game while looking up a scorecard.
It’s not immediately known what Google’s goal for Discussions is, especially given that this wouldn’t be the company’s first shot at a community (Google Plus, never forget). We’ve contacted Google to learn more about Discussions. We’ll keep you updated when we hear back from the company.
