If you’re a business-owner, chances are good your company is listed in Google Search results giving better visibility to existing and potential customers. Today, Google announced that it’s revamping the way that these business listings are edited — allowing users to make changes and updates directly within Google Search.
Google Search is an immensely powerful tool. You can use it to check movie times, self-diagnose what that rash on your arm is, learn how to cut an onion without crying, and virtually anything else that comes to mind. Among everything that we use Google Search for, one of the most popular search types are “how to” questions. Google recently looked further into the “how to” queries on its search engine, and the results are quite interesting.
The latest version of the Google app rolled out to iOS yesterday with a number of new features centered around making Search faster. “Instant answers” are already found on the web and provide the results of basic queries without having to complete a search, while the Google app will now list trending searches around you.
Google is updating its travel tools today with a focus on reducing costs and making planning easier. Google Flights will now suggest travel and booking dates that are less expensive, while Search will recommend nearby airports and hotels that might be cheaper.
Since 2012, Google Knowledge Graph cards have grown to include a large corpus of useful information. Last year, Search began rolling out health-related cards that list symptoms and the usual treatments. Google is today adding a clinically validated screening questionnaire to the Knowledge Panel on depression.
While Google Trends only provides a relative snapshot of people’s searches, it is nevertheless a quite interesting view into human behavior. At times, said behavior can be quite frustrating as evident by yesterday’s peak of “eyes hurt” searches on Google.
With the next billion users coming from developing markets, Google has taken to creating apps specially tuned for those users. The latest is called Search Lite and offers a lighter, more focused version of the main Google Search experience.
Over the years, Google has added a number of features based on crowdsourced data to improve local discovery in Maps and Search. The latest effort involves adding a question and answer section directly to listings in Maps and mobile Search.
For Google, being the default search engine on iOS is highly lucrative, with Apple’s mobile devices predicted to contribute approximately 50% of Google’s mobile search revenue. So much so that one financial firm estimates that Google will pay Apple $3 billion this year to remain the default.
Google has long possessed a number of cooking-related tools, including a recipe-optimized Search functionality. Back in April, the Assistant on Google Home added the ability to verbally walk users through creating a dish. The Google Feed is now gaining more food-related smarts as its built-in ‘Cooking’ feature sees a wider rollout.
On the heels of a new feature being tested within the YouTube application, we have spotted another that places Google search results within search results…
A day after news surfaced that Google was interested in buying Snap last year, a new report notes that Google is developing a “Snapchat-like media content” format based on AMP. Working with several partners, it will allow publishers to create Discover-like visual content similar to Stories.
Over the past few weeks, Google Search has been testing some interface changes on the mobile web. While that particular change is not yet live for most users, Google is now rolling out a navigation drawer for its mobile site and a new centralized “Saved” page.
The Search Console is an important tool for those who want to optimize their site’s search performance. Google today announced an “extensive redesign” with several key goals in mind. The company will start showcasing the revamped product by releasing two new beta features in the coming weeks.
Since 2010, typing a query into Google on desktops would automatically begin listing results based on what Search assumed you were looking for. Google is now removing this desktop-specific feature given how most searches occur on mobile.
Google is works on a number of different products and services, but no matter what project the company takes on, its biggest involvement is, and could always be, its search engine. Google Search has grown and matured quite a bit over the years with subtle improvements and new features, and it looks like Google’s latest venture with Search is to test out automatically-playing videos…
Whether you’re trying to find a new restaurant or buying a new car, you likely research the business to see what others think about it or to get other general information. Google’s “local panels” provide a ton of information about businesses, and currently, it looks like Google is preparing a new feature for this panel.
Google has useful search tools for quickly finding the best deals on flights, movie tickets, and more. With a recently added filter for vacation rentals, hotel searches have become even more helpful.
As past events throughout time have proven, the world can sometimes be a dark and dangerous place. Having access to the right information during a crisis can prove to be lifesaving depending on the situation at hand, and the release of SOS Alerts on Google Search and Maps aims to make dealing with these future events easier and much more manageable.
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Update: In a statement, Google tells us that they hope to rollout “some version of the feed experience” to the mobile web. However, there are no plans to bring the Feed to the desktop. Their full comment is below.
Google yesterday announced a revamp of the Feed, formerly Google Now, that focuses on delivering smarter, more contextual information that is better personalized. Limited to mobile for the moment, one report today notes that Google is bringing the Feed to the web.
After sporadically appearing for several weeks, Google has rolled out a small, but useful addition to the dictionary card of Search results. The widget finally adds a dedicated search box to quickly lookup words without having to refresh your current page.
Several years ago, the European Union passed a “right to be forgotten” law that instructs tech companies like Google to delist certain content when requested by an individual. Search abides by this, but Google only removes information on a regional, not global, basis.
France’s data protection agency CNIL fined the company on this distinction, with Google appealing last year. Given the significant impact of such a ruling, the appeals court today decided to refer this case to the top European court.
At the end of 2016, Google began to roll out a new feature that allowed people to reserve their spot in fitness and wellness classes straight from a business listing within Search and Maps. Starting today, Google has expanded this feature to also include spas and salons so that you can quickly and easily schedule your haircut or mani-pedi without having to call the shop or deal with a confusing online interface…
Google Maps is taking advantage of its large crowdsourcing aspect to make it easier to both input and find details about the accessibility of a location. In addition to this information appearing in Maps, it will also appear in Search result cards.
