Google Discover on Desktop: A New Opportunity for Businesses?

Google is doubling down on an old bet about curated content delivery. 

At a recent Google Search Central Live event in Madrid, Clara Sotera confirmed plans to bring Google Discover to desktop search—a major move for a feature that’s been exclusively mobile since its 2018 launch (formerly known as Google Feed).

As Google prepares to roll out this feature to desktop users, businesses and content creators have a significant opportunity to reach new audiences. 

This article explores what Google Discover is, why its desktop expansion matters, and how different types of businesses can position themselves for success on this growing platform.

What is Google Discover and How is it Different from Search?

Google Discover provides web users with a social media-style curated content feed. Unlike organic search, where users must actively query information, Discover proactively presents content based on users’ interests and online behavior. It’s a personalized feed that serves relevant articles, videos, and other content without requiring any search input.

Visually, Discover presents information in a card-based format with prominent headlines and large images. This visual emphasis is what gives Discover that social media-esque experience that’s so distinct from a typical SERP. 

Initially, users accessed Discover through the Google app on iOS and Android devices, on the homepage of Chrome mobile browsers, and on Android phones (particularly Pixel devices) by swiping left from the home screen.

How Google Discover Works

Discover’s algorithm prioritizes content based on user interests rather than query intent. It identifies relevant topics using signals like search history, browser activity, app usage, and location. Unlike traditional search, which ranks results by keyword relevance, Discover surfaces content aligned with users’ broader interests. 

The algorithm also places significant emphasis on content freshness, visual appeal, and engagement metrics. Articles with compelling headlines and high-quality images tend to perform better, with Google specifically recommending images at least 1200 pixels wide.

Despite the stated differences, it’s important to note that Google considers Discover an offshoot of Search and says that it “uses many of the same signals and systems” to identify helpful content. It’s also indexed the same way as the rest of your content. So, if the SERP can find it, Google Discover can too.

Here are some of the Do’s and Don’ts of Discover according to Google’s Developer Resources:

By now you’re probably well-aware how Google says their products work and how they actually work often don’t line up (Google Leaks, anyone?). Discover is no exception. 

Thankfully, SEOs tend to be very curious people. And some of the brightest minds in the industry have already conducted their own studies and analysis to determine what it takes to show up in the Discover feed. Back in 2021, Lily Ray had already identified 10 characteristics of top performing Discover pages, many of which run contrary to Google’s best practices, including: 

• Using clickbait-y, emotionally-charged headlines
• Focusing on controversial topics 
• Targeting particular beliefs or political views

Ray has since released an updated version of how to optimize posts for Google Discover. 

Current Impact on the Content Landscape

Google Discover isn’t making as much of a splash as their AI overviews or the fact that Reddit is dominating the SERPs, but it’s still an important channel for brands to consider. 

At the end of last year, Digiday reported on the decline in referral traffic for publisher sites across a number of channels in 2024. Direct traffic, Google News traffic, and Facebook and X traffic all decreased. 

Over the same period, referral traffic from Google Discover increased from 22.8% to 25.7%. While a 3% rise might not seem dramatic, it was the largest increase among all referral channels studied.

Data from Chartbeat also shows that the average engaged time for Google Discover traffic is 8 seconds longer than it is for average traffic (37s vs 29s). 

Globally, content focused on arts, culture, and entertainment performs especially well on Google Discover. Other consistently high-performing categories include lifestyle and leisure, weather, and health.

Clearly, the mobile version of Google Discover has been an effective tool for publishers. The question is: 

How will the move to desktop impact the usability of Discover?

The Significance of Discover’s Desktop Expansion

Google’s move to bring Discover to desktop is an interesting one, especially with the way people’s online habits are changing. It looks like Google is trying to offer a more curated experience, similar to what users expect from social media and AI tools.

Google hasn’t announced an official launch date for Discover on desktop, but testing has been underway for some time. Over the past couple of years, various users have reported being opted into desktop Discover tests.

1) Impact on Potential Audience Reach

Bringing Discover to desktop opens it up to users who mainly browse on computers or have not used the mobile version. With Chrome holding 65 percent of the desktop browser market, the potential audience is huge, especially in professional settings where desktop use is still the norm.

For B2B brands that publish timely or newsworthy content, the desktop rollout creates a big opportunity. This content now has a chance to make its way to the Discover feeds of relevant business decision-makers who spend much of their workday in front of computers. Best of all, they don’t even have to actively search for it.  

2) A New Google Desktop Experience

Screengrabs from previews and tests of the Discover interface show that it will likely maintain the card-based format of the mobile version, but with modifications to take advantage of larger screen real estate. 

For example, here’s a screenshot Barry Schwartz shared of a Discover dashboard from back in late 2023: 

Why is this important? Because desktop users also tend to engage with content differently than mobile users. 

Mobile browsing often happens in short, frequent bursts, while desktop users tend to spend more time on content and are more likely to read longer-form articles from start to finish.

The Google Discover feed could reshape desktop content habits by normalizing searchless, algorithm-driven consumption.

3) A Brand Authority Boost with Every Feature

Google Discover also represents a new opportunity to build brand authority. Unlike conventional SEO, which responds to specific queries, Discover proactively places your content in front of users based on their interests and behaviors, creating opportunities for thought leadership positioning.

When users repeatedly encounter high-quality content from your brand in their personalized feeds, it builds familiarity and trust over time. This passive brand exposure helps establish your company as a recognized authority in your field without requiring users to actively search for you.

For brands focusing on specific industries or niches, Discover’s topic-oriented algorithm rewards deep expertise. Companies that consistently produce insightful, valuable content on clearly defined topics can become the go-to source in users’ feeds for those subjects, reinforcing authority positioning.

Google Discover as a Traffic Channel for Different Business Types

As you might imagine, Google Discover’s impact varies heavily across different business models and content types. 

We’ve already seen the data showing that Discover is a key traffic channel for publishers, in some cases even surpassing organic search as a referral source. 

But its effectiveness isn’t universal. 

To understand where Discover works best (and where it falls flat), let’s break it down by business type.

Publishers and Media Outlets

Publishers and B2C brands have had the most consistent success with Discover, with entertainment, lifestyle, and news categories driving the most traffic.

According to Abby Hamilton’s analysis of over 10,000 links appearing in Discover, 46% of the URLs were from news sites, while 44% were from ecommerce sites. Entertainment (7%), travel (2%), and a mishmash of other topics (1%) made up the remainder. 

What stood out most was the dominance of news sites, which accounted for 99% of all Discover clicks. 

In other words, publishers and media outlets appear to have a major edge over pure business sites, regardless of whether they’re B2C or B2B. 

Entertainment content also shows strong performance, with video-focused pages receiving 16% of entertainment-sector clicks in Hamilton’s analysis. Special offers and time-limited deals were particularly effective for travel sites, accounting for 53% of their Discover clicks.

B2C Brands 

Google Discover has also proven to be a strong channel for B2C brands in product-driven and lifestyle categories.

Hamilton’s analysis found that product category and product detail pages drove 49 percent of Discover clicks to ecommerce sites. Special offers and time-sensitive deals also performed well, particularly in the travel sector, where they accounted for 53 percent of clicks.

While these findings don’t exactly align with Google’s stated preference for “high-quality, helpful content,” they suggest that Discover has real value as a product discovery tool (no pun intended).

Discover also helps product-focused brands reach potential customers earlier in the buying journey. Since Google recommends content based on a user’s interests and behavior—not on a specific search—it can create awareness before someone actively starts shopping. That early exposure makes follow-up campaigns like retargeting ads and email sequences more effective by building on an initial touchpoint.

Brands in visually rich categories like fashion, home décor, food, and lifestyle have a natural advantage. Discover’s image-forward format rewards striking visuals, making it a prime channel for brands that excel in product photography and marketing creative.

Consumer brands with strong visual elements should lean into this by producing content that pairs compelling imagery with timely, audience-relevant topics. Seasonal guides, product explainers, or campaign tie-ins that match user interests are more likely to stand out in Discover feeds.

B2B Brands

Discover hasn’t traditionally been a strong channel for B2B content. Hamilton’s same analysis showed that B2B was lumped in with several other industries that collectively drove just 1% of Discover traffic. That doesn’t mean B2B brands should overlook the platform, as the shift to desktop could lead to new patterns in how users engage with content.

To succeed on Discover, B2B brands need to think less like marketers and more like publishers. That means moving beyond the standard SEO playbook and creating content that delivers insight, not just promotion.

Several companies are already doing this well, producing content that wouldn’t feel out of place in a trade publication:

• Toast’s restaurant-focused publication On the Line
• Guild’s HR-focused publication Compass
• 6Sense’s thought leadership series Science of B2B

Discover offers a valuable opportunity for B2B brands focused on thought leadership, research, or trend-driven content. While it may not be a primary acquisition channel, it can support brand authority and top-of-funnel awareness if articles are tied to newsworthy events, emerging trends, or industry reports.

Content authored by subject-matter experts or executives may perform particularly well, as it sends stronger E-E-A-T signals to Google and aligns with the kind of expert-driven content Discover tends to favor.

The key is to focus on informative content that helps professionals stay current or make better decisions. Articles about industry shifts, research-backed insights, or timely explainer content stand the best chance of gaining traction.

Optimizing Content for Google Discover

It’s still far too early to give any definitive advice for the desktop version of Google Discover. 

But based on data from the mobile version and insights from those great SEOs we mentioned earlier, you can prepare your content engine for this latest shakeup. 

Here are the most important steps to optimize your content for Google Discover:

• Use high-quality, large images: Include visually compelling images at least 1200 pixels wide with the max-image-preview: setting 
• Implement proper schema markup: Use Article or NewsArticle schema to help Google understand and categorize your content correctly
• Focus on clear, specific topics: Create content that is unambiguously about specific topics users care about rather than covering multiple subjects superficially
• Demonstrate E-E-A-T: Show expertise, experience, authority, and trustworthiness in your content through proper sourcing, author credentials, and factual accuracy
• Optimize page speed: Ensure fast loading times, especially on mobile devices, as speed appears more important for Discover than for traditional search
• Create compelling headlines: Write clear, descriptive headlines under 110 characters that accurately represent your content without using clickbait tactics

When your content combines solid technical foundations with relevance, timing, and emotional appeal, it stands a better chance of showing up in the Discover feed and staying there.

Word of Warning: Discover Is Not a “Growth Hack”

Before diving into implementation strategies, let’s clear up a key point: Google Discover is not a guaranteed traffic source or easy “growth hacking strategy.” Despite the potential and clear investment from Google, brands need to be aware of the limitations before they jump in full-steam.  

A look at user discussions reveals mixed experiences with Discover. While some users find it valuable for discovering relevant content, others express frustration with its limitations. 

One of the top SERP results for “Google Discover” is actually a Reddit thread with the title Google “Discover” feed is awful as a content discovery tool… 

It’s worth scrolling through to see some of the common complaints mobile users have had with Discover:

• The abundance of low-quality, clickbait content or thinly veiled advertisements rather than substantive articles.
• Limited curation options: The tools for refining one’s feed are often inadequate. When trying to indicate disinterest in specific topics, users are frequently presented with overly broad categories (“not interested in eating” instead of “not interested in restaurant chains”) that don’t allow for precise customization.
• Irrelevant content persistence: Even after attempting to curate their feed, users report that similar content continues to appear, just from different sources.
• Ad saturation: Several users mentioned an increase in sponsored content and advertisements in their feeds, diminishing the user experience.

Appearing in the Google Discover feed isn’t a sign that you’ve unlocked a new traffic stream. If these previous experiences are any indicator, showing up in the wrong feed at the wrong time could actually have a negative impact on your brand. 

Is Your Content Engine Ready for Discover?

Google Discover’s move to desktop might not make headlines the way other search updates do, but it’s a shift brands shouldn’t ignore.

Even though news publishers and media brands have seen the greatest gains from Discover so far, expanding it to desktop creates new opportunities for both B2C and B2B brands.

Early data shows that Discover’s personalized approach drives stronger engagement than many other channels. On average, users spend eight seconds longer on Discover content than on traditional search results, which is a meaningful difference in a time when attention is hard to hold.

For B2C brands in entertainment, lifestyle, and ecommerce, Discover is already a strong traffic source. B2B companies may face more of a challenge, but with the right editorial strategy, they can still benefit from Discover’s focus on timely and news-driven content.