It appears that Google is quietly testing a new feature on mobile that shows trending search topics within the search bar.
Similar to Facebook and Twitter, popular Google searches have recently started appearing in the Safari browser for iOS.
As soon as you type a letter into a Google, a drop-down menu appears with a list of the most popular searches. In the photo above, you can see what people searched for over the weekend, from what channel the MTV Movie Awards were on – it was definitely on MTV! – to news about Anderson Cooper’s mother. Selecting one of the topics will take you to a collection of news articles related to that topic.
While the feature was working until yesterday morning, it recently disappeared from the search bar.
Google has yet to comment on the matter, but without any actual mention of the feature on social media sites, it's likely that the company is testing the feature on a small group of users.
The search giant's move into this territory isn't a huge surprise. Just as other platforms like Facebook and Twitter are opening up new ways to engage their users, Google may want to emphasize what it knows best - what people are searching for and it provides the relevant information. Thus, encouraging users to stay on that site longer each time.
