Steam Search is getting improvements tested that will make it much better than before, and Steam Micro Trailers have arrived to give players more insight into the games they want to buy. These are just two of the experimental features being worked on by Steam Labs, a program within Valve to focus on improving their digital distribution client.
Steam Labs Beefs up Steam Search
Experiment 004: Search is (rather unsurprisingly) an effort to improve the search process on Steam. When activated, the new Steam Search gives you several more options for finding the games you want to play. You'll be able to narrow games down by a much more specific price now with the use of a slider bar. Of course, you can also denote whether or not you would like to factor in discounts for your search.That's not all, though! The new Steam Search that is being tested also allows you to filter games by tag, making it easier than ever to find the right title. Tags that are related to one another are grouped together, so it will give you an idea of the sort of games you can find on the platform.
You can activate the Steam Search experiment here, although you should know that it's only on a per-browser basis for now.
Steam Micro Trailers Highlights Gameplay
Also announced today are Steam Micro Trailers, which are, simply put, trailers that are very small. A micro trailer for every game on Steam has now been created and can be viewed through the use of this new Steam Labs experiment.As for Automatic Show, this feature will run you through some of the hottest and newest games by making use of these Steam Micro Trailers. Each game that appears on screen will have a related button that changes dynamically, allowing you to head over to the Steam Store page for any games you may be interested in.
Activate Micro Trailers here and activate Automatic Show here. Once again, these are on a per-browser basis, so you'll have to re-activate these if you go to another computer or phone.
These new experimental Steam Labs features add on to the other new features like the Steam Library Beta that was highlighted yesterday. While Valve hasn't always been the best about developing out new features for their digital distribution client, it seems that their Steam Labs program is set to fix that problem in the future.
What do you think of the new Steam Search? Do you find Steam Micro Trailers useful or do you think they are nothing more than a novelty? Let us know in the comments below!
