Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement that the recent design changes mirrored a new look the company introduced for search results on mobile phones in May. Money from Google advertising accounts for about 80 percent of Alphabet’s revenue. Search advertising is essential to the future of Google, though the company does not say how much it makes on it alone. Magna, a media intelligence firm, estimates that overall search advertising increased 14 percent in 2019 to $144 billion. Google constantly tinkers with the design of its search results page, and its once bare-bones approach to search results — characterized as “10 blue links” — has changed drastically in recent years.

Source: New York Times January 31, 2020 16:41 UTC