By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.In case you missed it, Google has redesigned the top of its search interface on the desktop to include a list of related “topics” designed to help you refine your search. What used to be a row of tabs allowing you to filter your search for things like “News,” “Images,” “Videos,” or “Shopping” is now a row of pill-shaped icons that adds topics to the old filters, which still appear. Google initially announced the feature for mobile in December and, as early as last month, had made it available on desktop for every search made in English in the US. That rollout had been gradual and was earlier spotted by 9to5Google. The feature subsequently appears to have started rolling out internationally since, as of this week, I’m now seeing it for English-language searches made in the UK (we’ve reached out to Google for an update on the exact status of the international launch).Here’s how it looked before the change:And after:From what I can tell, clicking on a “topic” basically adds it to your search query. So if I search for “WWDC 2023,” one of the topics suggested is “Keynote,” which I can then click to change my search to “WWDC 2023 Keynote.” It’s the kind of reflexive change most people would already think to make to their search if it initially doesn’t generate the exact results they’re after, but it’s a potentially helpful inclusion if you’re searching a more unfamiliar topic or want to click rather than type.Google completed the rollout of the new design the same week it officially launched Search Generative Experience (SGE) at its I/O developer conference, an experimental feature that drops an AI-generated answer to your search query at the top of search results, similar to Microsoft’s ChatGPT-powered Bing. Compared to SGE, the new topic icons are far less of a revolution. But even small updates like these matter when it comes to a search engine that’s thought to have a global market share of over 90 percent. / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily.The Verge is a vox media network© 2023 Vox Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved