Google Search Starts Highlighting Results Directly on Webpages

Google has added a new content highlighting feature to its search engine that aims to make it easier to find key information on webpages, reports SearchEngineLand (via The Verge).

google search highlight
The feature works with Google's Featured Snippets, which appear at the top of search results. Clicking a snippet takes the user to the source webpage, but now the browser automatically scrolls down the page to the text that appeared in the snippet and highlights it in yellow.

Google says the feature has been available with AMP pages since December 2018, but this is the first time Google has rolled it out for regular HTML content, too.

Web developers don't need to do anything to get content highlighting working on their sites, as it's all managed at Google's end and happens automatically, although our tests backed up The Verge's claim that, currently, it doesn't always work.


The search shown in the images at the top of our article worked on desktop in Chrome, but not in Safari or Firefox, for example. They didn't work in the mobile versions of these browsers for us at all.

As noted by SearchEngineLand, the feature could have an impact on the ad market, since visitors may be automatically scrolled down past website ads to the highlighted content. In some instances, sites may need to relocate their ads to align with the new Google feature.

Tag: Google

Popular Stories

Apple Logo Zoomed

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026. "I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
wwdc sans text feature

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
Finder Siri Feature

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do. The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up. Upgraded Architecture The next-generation...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April. Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far. iOS 26.3 iPhone to Android Transfer Tool iOS 26.3 makes it easier...
iphone 17 pro dark blue 1

iPhone 18 Pro Max Rumored to Deliver Next-Level Battery Life

Friday February 6, 2026 5:14 am PST by
The iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a bigger battery for continued best-in-class battery life, according to a known Weibo leaker. Citing supply chain information, the Weibo user known as "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a battery capacity of 5,100 to 5,200 mAh. Combined with the efficiency improvements of the A20 Pro chip, made with TSMC's 2nm process, the...

Top Rated Comments

itsmilo Avatar
74 months ago
One more step to world domination by Google. Soon you won’t even have to leave google to do anything on the internet
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
biziclop Avatar
74 months ago
It works by appending a special # value to the link containing a text fragment, like a search expression. For example try this in chrome:
https://www.geekwebguides.com/#:~:text=Archives

Links with details:
[MEDIA=reddit]OutOfTheLoop/comments/f7cdd8[/MEDIA]
https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/4733392803332096
https://github.com/WICG/scroll-to-text-fragment


One more step to world domination by Google. Soon you won’t even have to leave google to do anything on the internet
What do you think what the actual purpose of AMP ('https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Mobile_Pages') links is?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mazz0 Avatar
74 months ago
Wait what!? Isn't it one of the fundamentals of web security that code on one site isn't able to effect another? Is Chrome disable XSS restrictions just for Google?
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
szw-mapple fan Avatar
74 months ago

Wait what!? Isn't it one of the fundamentals of web security that code on one site isn't able to effect another? Is Chrome disable XSS restrictions just for Google?
No. It actually just generates a custom url that chrome recognizes. For example, in the example given the actual URL from the search is [ICODE]https://www.geekwebguides.com/how-to/reset-airpods/#:~:text=Press%20and%20hold%20the%20button,indicating%20the%20%E2%80%8CAirPods%E2%80%8C%20have%20reset.[/ICODE] instead of [ICODE]https://www.geekwebguides.com/how-to/reset-airpods[/ICODE]. Chrome will then parse the part after [ICODE]#:~:text=[/ICODE] and scroll to that location. It's almost like a shortcut to cmd + F. Nothing too sinister. More details here on Github ('https://github.com/WICG/scroll-to-text-fragment').
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
EmotionalSnow Avatar
74 months ago

Are we going to pretend like AMP didn’t make the web faster?
The only thing it did for me was annoy me.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
velocityg4 Avatar
74 months ago
If they want useful features. They need a reference search mode. Where it only searches online forums, technical support articles, professional reviews, &c. It's really annoying trying to find information on a problem or technical info. Only to be presented with shopping results, company product pages, &c. Which have nothing to do with the search.

The closest they have is Google Scholar. But that is more for scientific papers than run of the mill help and how to.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)