With the Google News Initiative announced earlier this year, the company is working to support journalism with features throughout News, YouTube, and of course Search. A new feature today for the latter product will display data tables right at the top of result pages.
Following its debut about a year ago, Google is today announcing improvements to its local event feature for Search which also adds personalized recommendations.
Unbeknownst to most users, Google has long featured native “Save” functionality to bookmark links and images. First built into Image Search and later the Search app on Android, Google also maintained a Chrome extension to save pages. However, Google is set to kill that client next month, thus sending mixed signals on the future of the feature.
Early this year Google announced that it would be adjusting how it ranks sites on mobile search with a new focus on page speed. Today, the company has revealed that this new “Speed Update” is officially rolling out.
Following the initial launch of a redesigned Search Console earlier this year, Google’s tool for monitoring and optimizing site performance is gaining a new capability. Frequently requested, web administrators will now be able to see the Google Search status of specific links.
Featuring summaries and key facts, Knowledge Graph panels in Google Search are an important way for users to quickly find information at a glance. Google is now making it easier for featured people, events, and organizations to suggest edits to keep their cards up-to-date.
Google’s Material Theme is slowly creeping its way into every corner of the company’s products, and that continues in part today with Google testing its “Google Sans” font in Search on mobile.
Google is applying its penchant for organizing the world’s information and making it easily accessible to the highly stressful area of choosing a college. Updated Knowledge Graph cards will now appear when searching for a 4-year college in the U.S. and include detailed information like admissions, costs, majors, and more.
In important markets, like India, Google often hosts specialized events to announce country-specific features and initiatives. At the second annual Google for Brazil event, the company today announced Android Go, along with new features in Search and Maps.
Back in March, our APK Insight into the Google app spotted a “pinned” floating sports score feature in development. The feature was officially unveiled today as part of the company’s wide-ranging coverage of the 2018 World Cup kicking off later this month.
No matter the developer or the company, there will almost always be bugs in code. But a very weird glitch on Android is causing the Google app displaying your text messages (the same way you can show them with a “show me my text messages” search) where one would typically expect search results.
Following the Federal Trade Commission filing suit against companies that try to take advantage of small businesses with threats of removing Search listings, Google is improving how it handles “bad actors” and third-parties. This include new awareness programs, better detection, and taking similar legal action.
Google Search is joining the Royal Wedding fervor with a rather interesting timer counting down to the Saturday pomp and ceremony. A lookup on mobile features a simple timer, which we haven’t been able to replicate for other occasions.
India is a very important market for tech companies, with Google referring to the entire region as where the “next billion users” will come from. To that extent, it has launched a number of specialized products, with the latest being Knowledge Graph cards in Search for exam results.
Yesterday, Google began discussing its broader podcasting strategy, with recent weeks seeing the launch of a dedicated experience in the Android app. Another interview today describes how the company wants to make this long-form audio format on par with video and text when surfacing Search results.
Autocomplete Google Search is often a source of amusement that surfaces funny and wild queries. However, beyond the memes it inspires, the feature can sometimes surface inappropriate predictions, with the company planning updates in the coming weeks to reduce the possibility of it occurring.
Google recently added inline answers from Stack Overflow in the Search results of certain queries. The search engine now appears to be testing a similar carousel for results from Quora.
There are literally billions of searches on Google every single day, so understandably, the company spends a lot of time refining the search UI for the better. Right now, there’s a test ongoing which trades out the current paginated search results for a simple “more results” button.
Following last week’s Play Movies & TV update that made the app a centralized streaming directory, Google Search is boosting its own movie features. Thanks to a new interface, movies that are currently in theaters will be easier to lookup and compare.
Two years ago, Google appointed its head of artificial intelligence to lead Search in a move that reflected the future of the company. Today, John Giannandrea is stepping down from those positions, with Google veterans Ben Gomes and Jeff Dean taking over.
Last December after a year of testing, Google announced that its mobile-first indexing of Search results was underway to better reflect how many people use the web. Today, it is officially rolling out, beginning by “migrating sites that follow the best practices.”
In a continued effort to improve its relationship with online news outlets, Google is apparently preparing a new search feature that favors subscription-based content.
Besides the upcoming AMP Stories, Google has a “Posts” format for verified people, places, and things to share right in Search results. Google Posts are now opening up to well known musicians.
Given the importance of speed as a metric, Google at Mobile World Congress is introducing new tools to help mobile sites improve their end-user experiences. The first is a comparison tool, while the second helps calculate the monetary impact of speed.