Summary
- Google Search no longer displays results count by default, but it can still be accessed through the Tools menu.
- The change may make it harder to quickly determine the number of search results, impacting user experience.
- Although the function of Google Search remains intact, the removal of results count may affect how users assess topics and site indexing.
Google Search has always shown how many results you get for a search, but back in 2016, the company began testing a change to drop this feature. This change popped up again in the Google Search Generative Experiencelast June, and now Search doesn’t show the results count by default anymore.
Search Engine Roundtable has pointed out that Google Search is now hiding the results count for all types of searches, including site commands. Recently, it has become clear that the number, which used to show up between the search filters and the results, isn’t visible anymore.
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Nonetheless, the count isn’t gone for good. As @si1very on X (formerly Twitter) figured, it has just been moved under the “tools” menu at the top right of the search bar, next to Advanced Search and other filters.
This change does make it a bit harder to quickly see how many results your search query pulled up. We can confirm that the results count still appears when you click on the Tools menu.
Google Search’s function isn’t really affected
Although this change might not affect how Search works, it’s been a familiar feature of Search for a long time. Many users found this page count helpful for different reasons. Some people used it to check how many pages Google had indexed from their site. According to Search Engine Roundtable, others also used the count to gauge the importance and competitiveness of a topic, create catchy titles, or just see how many results Google could show for a specific query.
It’s unclear why the results count is being hidden. But Google previously pointed out that the results count, particularly when used with a site command, isn’t a reliable measure of the number of pages it has indexed from a site. So, instead of a big number that might be misleading, they’re hiding it now.
