Google’s controversial Scroll to Text Fragment feature in Chrome 80 doesn’t work unless you enable a flag. The Text Fragment Anchor which allows linking to a specified word or text on a web page could be available to everyone out of the box with Chrome 81 release, meanwhile, Google which has taken part in the feature’s field trial has shown interest in using it in search results. Google Search is now already using it for featured snippets as we spotted.
The feature in question allows users to link to specific content on a page. The chromium team itself mentioned the Scroll to Text fragment will be useful for search results and Wikipedia reference links. This is what Google told to Chromium team when it asked for feedback on the feature after participating in the field trial.
“We experimented with Scroll to Text on Featured snippets on Google Search where it scrolls and highlights the same passage on the source page upon opening. We see improvements in search experience as a result of the feature”.
Google said the feature will help users to consume additional search results and source page content more effectively.
By allowing users to jump to the content that is most relevant to their queries we observe that users consume content on the source page more effectively. Additionally, users end up consuming a wider range of search results. There are already two similar launches within Google Search on a small fraction of traffic. This feature will help greatly expand the coverage”.
Well, today in incognito mode in Chrome 80, we’ve been able to see Google showing featured snippets with text fragment appended at the end of URL for a couple of queries. We’ can’t share an image here as we forget to capture the screenshot at that moment.
For the unknown, here is how you can create a link to the website article for a certain word. For instance, for Chrome to take you to FAQ word in this article, you need to navigate to this URL in the browser: https://techdows.com/2020/02/chromes-terms-of-service-changing-notification.html#:~:text=FAQ.
We’ve covered a bookmarklet that takes the pain out of creating scroll to text links manually in the Chrome browser
Related articles:
Google is testing Search Results without Underline
Where are the Cached and Similar Links for Search Results in Google?
Festivus Pole on Google Search Results Page
Instant Previews for Google Search Results
Stars in Google Search Results allows to Mark and Rediscover Your Favorite Web Content