For every search term the users will see a small magnifying glas icon just to the right side of the search result link. Clicking on this icon opens a pop-up that shows the snapshot of the webpage.
The image provided snapshot highlights things like the title, some related text and the URL of of the webpage. For example, if you click on the image, you will find that for the keyword "Tech et al" the snapshot contains an image of my site with highlighted snippet of text containing the searched term.
Using this feature the user can compare the results on different snippets and based on the relevence can chose the best one for his/her requitrements. If you are searching for something you have seen beofre and need to find again then, instead of clicking on every link, you can simply check the previews to see if the page is familiar or not.
According to Google blog,
- Quickly compare results - A visual comparison of search results helps you pick the one that’s right for you. Quickly flip through previews to see which page looks best.
- Pinpoint relevant content - Text call outs, in orange, will sometimes highlight where your search terms appear on the webpage so you can evaluate if it’s what you're looking for.
- Interact with the results page - Page previews let you see the layout of a webpage before clicking the search result. Looking for a chart, picture, map or list? See if you can spot one in the preview.
