As the past several years have demonstrated, voice is now an important interaction method that’s increasingly natural for users. But before Assistant, Google Search has long featured voice lookup on the web, and it’s now available on the mobile version of google.com.
Google Doodles are often used on the search giant’s homepage to recognize an important date, event, or holiday. Today, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the company has put up a special Doodle from a guest artist.
Since the European Union Copyright Directive was introduced last year, Google and YouTube have been lobbying against it by enlisting creators and users. Ahead of finalized language for Article 11 and 13 this month, Google Search is testing possible responses to the “link tax.”
Back in September, Google marked its 20th anniversary by announcing a slew of new features for its flagship Search product. Some features, like Google Lens in Image Search, have already launched. Today, activity cards to aid and better organize lookups are rolling out.
Featured Snippets in Google Search provide users with direct answers and are leveraged during voice queries on Assistant and Home speakers. On the web, Google sometimes shows videos queued to the relevant timestamp and is now directly highlighting answers on AMP articles when users click-through to the full answer.
Google announced one year ago that it would start mobile-first indexing, with the effort beginning in March. The company today shared that this method for improving mobile Search results is now used for “over half of the pages shown in search results globally.”
The NBA All-Star Game is an annual exhibition match where fans get to pick the players. For the 2019 competition, Google is playing an exclusive role in the voting process that heavily promotes Google Assistant and Search.
Last week, Google posted its annual Year in Search video to highlights 2018’s top search terms. To accompany that list of popular queries, Google today released the “Game of the Year” to test your knowledge of this year’s trends.
Sundar Pichai told Congress last week that Google has “no plans to launch Search in China.” In an interview after the hearing, the CEO suggested other non-Search areas that Google could explore in the country, like healthcare. A new report today reveals that Project Dragonfly is “effectively ended.”
One area where Google applied machine learning is flight delay predictions in Search. After launching earlier this year on the web, Google Assistant will now show predicted flight delays and soon provide proactive notification alerts on your phone.
After rolling out late last month to Google Search on the desktop web, the Google Material Theme is beginning to appear on the mobile counterpart. This similar redesign features modern elements like a pill-shaped search field that is available on both the results page and homepage.
Google Search is useful for finding results, but on the flip side, the number of users searching allow for clear trends to emerge. Google has compiled that data for the 2018 holiday shopping season and notes the top toys, books, and tech.
It’s an annual tradition for Google to decorate holiday-related search terms. With Hanukkah 2018 already in full swing, the three major year-end holidays have been given a fresh coat of paint in Google Search, with Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa getting their own special treatment.
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It’s no secret that Google holds a lot of data about its users, and that includes personalized search results based on a variety of factors. Thanks to a new study, we’re getting some further insight into how search results are personalized, as well as how being logged out affects matters.
Back in September, Google Search began testing the Google Material Theme on the desktop web. This evening, it is beginning to widely appear for users and features a number of design changes, including a persistent pill-shaped search bar.
The weather is a very popular question that people search for and frequently ask Google Assistant on Home, Smart Displays, Android, and other devices. However, this particular query is currently experiencing some issues this morning and not providing back any results.
Google Search features a number of useful built-in tools. When a query can be answered by a direct result, Google will now no longer show the standard web links. This change on mobile, Android, and iOS results in a faster search experience.
Back in October, Google announced that it was killing Google+ for consumers following a privacy bug. While serving as an admission that the company’s take on social failed, it has become clear in recent months that the company is still very interested in social.
For example, Google Maps has added the ability to follow stores and message directly with businesses. Now, Google’s social ambitions have turned to Search, with the ability to leave comments in sports matches.
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Checking the weather is a key function of every device from phones to Google Home to Smart Displays. On Android, Google Search has a rather excellent built-in weather experience that is well-designed and visually delightful. Unfortunately, Google Weather on Android and Google Search over the past few months has lost the ability to check air quality.
Voting in the 2018 Midterm elections for the House and Senate are well underway, while on the state and local level there are a slew of gubernatorial races and various ballots. Google encourages voting around the world and its products from Search to YouTube are in full force today to help with that civic duty and provide results later tonight.
As the holiday season approaches, there is an uptick in annual travel, with Google in recent weeks launching new vacation features in Search. Google Hotel Search is now getting redesigned with the Google Material Theme.
Google last week celebrated its 20th anniversary with a Doodle, Street View tour of its original garage HQ, and a love letter to Easter Eggs. The latter tribute comes as a new game has just been uncovered, yielding an elaborate text adventure.
As it’s been learned over the years, Google pays Apple to remain the default search engine in Safari on iOS. While neither company publicly speaks on the agreement, analysts believe payments are made in the billions.
Earlier this week, Google announced a number of updates to Google Search as it prepares for the next 20 years. Today, the Your Trips feature is getting ready for the holiday travel season with improved organization, more suggestions, and hotel ratings.