Google’s official Webmasters Twitter account announced a small improvement to Google Search Console. Users can now hover over a URL and click an tool-tip style icon to copy the URL to the clipboard.
According to the announcement:
“Little tweak to Search Console, something many people have requested!
We’re adding a “copy to clipboard” button
Now you may see 3 icons when hovering over a URL: copy to clipboard, open in new tab, and inspect URL.
We hope this small change boosts your productivity”
Little tweak to Search Console, something many people have requested! 📢 We're adding a "copy to clipboard" button 🖱️ Now you may see 3 icons when hovering over a URL: copy to clipboard, open in new tab, and inspect URL. We hope this small change boosts your productivity 💪 pic.twitter.com/0aTfWNV5qj
— Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) April 27, 2020
Copy to Clipboard
The change involves the ability to hover over an icon and being able to copy a URL to a clipboard. While it’s a seemingly incremental improvement the effect on user experience is larger.
Instead of the awkward process of highlighting a URL and accidentally clicking it, now a publisher can simply hover and click to copy.
Response is Positive
Improves workflow
Many Twitter users responded that it was an improvement to their workflow:
“Really useful, especially inspect URL, because earlier we need to click it & then inspect URL was showing, where we were losing the flow of analysis.”
Really useful, especially inspect URL, because earlier we need to click it & then inspect URL was showing, where we were losing the flow of analysis.
— HTML & SEO Learning (@teentale) April 27, 2020
There is Room for Improvement
I asked ex-Google engineer Fili Wiese (@filiwiese) about this, because I know he advocates for quality user experiences.
This is his reaction:
“I am glad to see that the Google Search Console team has taken the feedback and finally implemented the option to copy a URL to clipboard. However Google Search Console is still missing the basic “right click and open in new tab“ feature I expect and have been asking for years for all internal navigation within Google Search Console.
I understand that Google Search Console has been developed with mobile first in mind, which is to be applauded.
However realistically most GSC users are likely to be desktop users so I look forward to future desktop workflow improvements, like full support for “right click and open in new tab“ and a single page with an overview of all properties (without the need to search for it in a pull down menu) for anyone who has more than 5 properties in their account.”
Publishers and SEO Community Have Waited a Long Time
Many users have apparently been waiting a long time for this improvement.
Ex-Googler, Fili Wiese said that this was something he had been requesting for years. Fili has a lot to say about User Experience and his comment reflected that interest:
Indeed, glad to hear that asking for this basic feature for a few years finally paid off 😂
— Fili Wiese (@filiwiese) April 27, 2020
Another publisher/SEO remarked on how he’s been waiting for this feature to be added to Google Search Console:
Oh yes!! This have been waiting for this for ages!! Thank you 🙏🏻
— Benas Leonavicius (@BLeonavicius) April 27, 2020
Takeaway
User experience improvements help users be more productive and increases their positive feelings for tools and products. It’s good to see Google focus on improving the user experience and workflow in search console.
