Searching for “what to watch” will soon pull up a carousel of options organized by channel.
It probably isn’t a stretch to say that most of us are staying in and watching more TV than usual these days. Now Google wants to rise to the occasion by making it easier to search for stuff to watch, whether that’s a baseball game or your favorite terrible reality show.
“Today we’re adding new features to Google Search in the US to help you quickly find the live games you’re looking for,” reads a Google blog post from Satyajeet Salgar, group product manager for Google Search. “And when the game is over, we’re here to help you discover live TV shows or movies that you may like too.”
The way it works is simple enough. For sports, just search for your favorite NBA or MLB team to pull up a better-organized list of airtimes and channels for upcoming matchups, including a new “live on” section that shows the live TV options in your specific area. Support for other leagues is in the works, too, so it’s a good bet you’ll be able to Google NFL games next month as well.
As for TV shows, just type the name of whatever it is you want to watch to see when it’s on next. If you don’t know what to watch, you can just search for “what to watch” to pull up a carousel of channels, with preview thumbnails of everything that’s currently live.
The update seems pretty minor, all things considered, but in this day and age, it’s hard to complain about anything that makes for better binge-watching. At any rate, if it helps me find the game I want to watch a few seconds faster, I’ll call it a win. Look for the new features in Google Search results starting today.