Google Search

808 'Google Search' stories May 2011 - August 2015

Google rolls out attractive, new apps search UI

Cam Bunton Aug 28 2015 - 2:52 am PT

It looks like Google has been working behind the scenes to make searching for apps a much more intuitive and better-looking experience on Android. As spotted by the folks at Android Police, if you go searching for apps from the default search feature in Android, you’ll now get a very attractive, Material-themed grid of apps. Although it doesn’t work for every single term, simply search for anything followed by ‘apps’ and it’ll bring up a grid of downloadable options from the Google Play Store.

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Google Search has new context-based storm-preparedness recommendations

Tom Maxwell Aug 27 2015 - 8:37 am PT

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Google puts a lot of effort into making the world’s knowledge organized and accessible, and in particular it has a record through its Crisis Response project of making certain information more accessible during times of disaster. Today it released a blog post detailing how it’s doing more to help people be prepared.

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Google opens up data on site search performance with new Analytics developer API

Tom Maxwell Aug 5 2015 - 10:15 am PT

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Have you ever wondered what the most commonly searched terms which lead to your site appearing in Google’s results are? Or maybe the top queries on mobile that lead to your site appearing in results? Well, Google has offered a Search Analytics Report in the Google Search Console for some time which provides this exact kind of data (where have you been?), and now it has created an API developers can use to play around with this data in their own apps.

It’s called the Search Analytics API and with it, developers get access to all the data on traffic that has come to them through search, and can sort it by parameters like country to gain insights into, for example, what are the top queries in India that lead to visitors.

The potential here is for developers to create graphical user interfaces to this data, so less tech savvy individuals would gain the ability to sift through their search data without needing prior knowledge on how to use an API.

Google promoting Flights product in city Knowledge Graph search cards

Tom Maxwell Jul 21 2015 - 2:17 pm PT

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Google’s Knowledge Graph attempts to surface relevant, actionable information to the search page so you don’t have to do as much clicking. As one example, Google presents population and other census data front and center when you search for a city. It looks like this card in particular, the one for cities and towns, has been updated with a new actionable snippet for flights…

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Google displaying product review snippets in product knowledge cards

Tom Maxwell Jul 10 2015 - 3:09 pm PT

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Search for a product on Google and you might see a Knowledge Graph card to the right of the result links containing details on the product as well as links to sites selling it and the full Google Shopping reviews page. You may now also see snippets of what people are saying regarding certain aspects of a product.

First spotted by Search Engine Land, Google seems to be pulling quotes from the product reviews that it aggregates from other websites and placing them inside Search product cards. The company gets most of these reviews from the product pages of websites selling the item – Rakuten.com Shopping and B&H Photo are two places the reviews for the above speakers come from, for example.

As Search Engine Land notes, you can click through to see all the reviews for a product, but on the full reviews page the only link provided against each review simply goes to the product page hosting the review – it doesn’t take you to that exact review on the host site.

Google is constantly adjusting its Knowledge Graph cards, most recently removing Google+ posts from the cards for popular businesses.

Google’s new search carousel skims more content from sites like Pinterest and Houzz

Tom Maxwell Jun 26 2015 - 1:37 pm PT

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Google is known for historically having a goal with search to get people to the information they want as quickly as possible. Search engines by design are intended to get you what you’re looking for on the first try, so it makes total sense that Google optimizes ruthlessly in hopes that you don’t have to click the next page link. But ever since the company introduced search cards it’s been evident that it wants to be the host of the information you’re looking for whenever possible. A new small change today adds on that.

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Google’s cache page now offers new ways to view old webpages

Tom Maxwell Jun 22 2015 - 8:02 am PT

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As reported by users on Twitter, Google has updated its cached link toolbar with new ways to view website snapshots. Cached webpages can now be viewed in their full glory with all styling intact, in a text-only version that strips all styling, or viewed by their source, meaning you can view the code behind the cached webpage.

Here’s what visiting the text-only cached version of Google.com looks like:

The company every so often will take a snapshot of a website and save it to its cache, so the page can still be viewable in the event that the website its hosted on becomes inaccessible. You can access the cached version of a webpage, like the one above, by searching for it on Google, clicking on the green down arrow directly to the right of a result URL, and clicking “Cached.” Click here to see the cached page for Google.com.

EU says few people are appealing ‘right to be forgotten’ rulings, most denials justified

Tom Maxwell Jun 18 2015 - 10:45 pm PT

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Google controls most of the search engine market in Europe, and as a result receives most ‘right to be forgotten’ requests, those things where individuals can request the de-listing of links to sensitive information about themselves that are deemed out-dated or irrelevant. But more than half of requests are denied, and of those that are appealed, most of those are too denied – which the European Union says is just fine.

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Pro-tip: you can set alarms for your Android phone using desktop Google search

Tom Maxwell Jun 18 2015 - 5:11 pm PT

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If you’re anything like me, at some point during your day you’ll consciously think to yourself about what time you’d like to get up the next day. You’ll think about it, but then just forget to set an alarm on your phone before you go to sleep and end up waking at a different time than you’d like. Well, there’s a neat card in Google search that can be evoked with a simply query that may help you with this problem.

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You can now search for chain restaurant nutritional information in the Google app

Tom Maxwell Jun 16 2015 - 9:10 am PT

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Regulations in the United States enacted by the USDA require chain restaurants to include the caloric content of menu items right on the menus themselves. Restaurants do their best to get around this requirement, however, by oftentimes printing the calorie information in small, faint type that’s hard to see or even notice. Fortunately, Google is here to help, putting caloric and other nutritional information only as far away as an “OK Google” command.
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Chrome for Android’s ‘Touch to Search’ feature for looking up highlighted text now rolling out

Tom Maxwell Jun 3 2015 - 9:41 am PT

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Thanks to a screenshot shared on Google+, we’ve learned that the previously experimental Touch to Search feature for the Chrome browser on Android seems to have been moved to the stable build and is now rolling out to users. Touch to Search “sends the selected word and the current page as context to Google Search,” according to Google. In other words, you see something in a webpage that you’d like to learn more about and can highlight and look it up in Google Search without leaving the page.

It’s notably similar to the recently announced Now on Tap, except it only works within the Chrome browser and, of course, you’re providing more context than Now on Tap requires. From the image above it seems that this feature is opt-in, which makes sense with many cautious of Google’s attempts to collect information on their every digital move.

According to Android Central they’ve been able to access the feature from Chrome on a 2014 Moto X without updating, so Google probably just enabled a flag for the feature on the public build server-side, but I just tested it on a 2nd generation Moto G and wasn’t able to bring it up. Does the new feature appear like in the image above when you highlight text in Chrome for Android? Leave a comment if so!

Google’s mobile search now answering questions right in the autocomplete options

Tom Maxwell May 27 2015 - 9:37 am PT

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It appears that Google is rolling out a neat new update to its instant search suggestions on mobile, first spotted by The Next Web. While in the past, Google search would simply load results for what it thought you were searching for to the whole page, now answers to some short questions may find themselves placed directly inside autocomplete suggestions.
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Google now indexing info from iOS apps in search

Tom Maxwell May 27 2015 - 8:38 am PT

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Google’s App Indexing technology isn’t exactly the most exciting thing to discuss, but so long as the majority of the company’s revenue still comes from search (it does), it is imperative that they figure out how to make their main business work on mobile where the eyeballs are going. So the company announced that today App Indexing is coming to iOS apps, starting with Chrome and Google Search.

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Google to introduce new ‘buy now’ buttons in search results within the coming weeks

Chance Miller May 15 2015 - 5:15 pm PT

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The Wall Street Journal today reported that Google plans to launch a new “buy now” button this week. The button will be incorporated directly into its shopping search results. The report echoes a similar report from The Wall Street Journal earlier this year, in which it was reported that Google wanted to enter the online commerce and more seriously battle Amazon and eBay.

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You can now order takeout in the U.S. from your Google search results

Chance Miller May 7 2015 - 5:51 pm PT

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In a post on Google+ this evening, Google has announced that it is adding a new feature to its search engine that will make it incredibly easy to quickly order food on the go. Google says that starting today, if you search for a restaurant that is integrated with Seamless, Eat24, GrubHub, Delivery.com, MyPizza.com, or BeyondMenu, you will be able to order a meal directly from the search results.

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Microsoft’s search engine market share passes 20% for the first time

Stephen Hall Apr 17 2015 - 7:27 am PT

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Microsoft’s Bing isn’t the most popular search engine around, but—at least according to the latest from comScore—it’s gaining ground slowly but surely. For the first time, Microsoft sites have surpassed the 20% milestone, meaning more than one fifth of overall search traffic is now owned by the Redmond, Washington company…
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Report: Google partnering w/ retailers for new ad-targeting method in Search

Chance Miller Apr 14 2015 - 3:22 pm PT

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is currently in talks to allow advertisers to target ads towards existing customers in search results. According to the report, Google has approached advertisers with the idea of them sharing customer information that Google would then use to target the ads.

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Google testing new direct-to-business chat platform powered by Hangouts

Stephen Hall Feb 24 2015 - 2:20 pm PT

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Google is testing an interesting new feature in search, as spotted by one Matt Gibstein on Twitter. As you can see in the above screenshot, there’s a small “Chat” icon next to the phone number of a business called “Dizengoff” in Philadelphia—and it looks like clicking it will launch you into a chat session directly with that business via Hangouts.
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Google Flight Search expands to Switzerland

Zac Hall Feb 2 2015 - 10:19 am PT

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Google shared today that its Flight Search feature is now available to users in Switzerland. This means an optimized version of the travel search function with local currency and language is available from primary Google search both online and through Google’s apps in Switzerland. Previously, users had to rely on google.com/flights which isn’t fine-tuned for users outside of the United States.

Whether you’re traveling from Geneva to Barcelona, Zurich to Sydney, or you’re not sure where to go, Flight Search can offer inspiration and help you find the best flights available. Starting today, you can use Google to quickly and easily compare and book flights — from your mobile device, desktop or tablet.

Users in Switzerland can now access the localized Google Flights Search feature through www.google.ch/flights in addition to seeing support through the Google mobile apps with Google Now cards supported. Google adds that Now cards will display airfare changes for searched flights for users in Switzerland. Previously, Google Flights Search expanded into Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in mid-2014,

Google adds new interface for movie-related searches on Android

Chance Miller Jan 28 2015 - 5:02 pm PT

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Google today has unveiled a newly designed search page for move-related queries in Chrome for Android and the official Google Search app. The update presents the results in a fashion similar to what you see when you search for content in the Play Store.

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How to set up Google Now to listen for ‘OK Google’ hotword from everywhere

Casey Carroll Dec 16 2014 - 12:51 pm PT

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Google Search is a powerful tool that you’ll find on almost any Android device. Its ability to start listening to your voice after you say the hotwords “OK Google” makes it convenient to use and fun to show off. Most people assume the hotword detection only works when you’re in the Google Search app or if you’re using the Google Now Launcher, but when using a device that’s on Android 4.3 or higher, you can set up Google Now to listen for the hotwords from any screen–even when the display is off on some devices…

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The EU reportedly wants Google to separate search from the rest of its business

Mark Hearn Nov 21 2014 - 1:54 pm PT

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Google’s ongoing battle with the European Union may have just taken a nasty turn. A new draft motion from the European Parliament is looking to separate the outfit’s search business from the rest of its operations. This comes after years of accusations against the company claiming that it exercises adverse practices, showcasing its own products while burying its competition.

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Google Search for Android updated with Material Design makeover, improved reminders and more

9to5 Staff Nov 12 2014 - 12:08 pm PT

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With the release of Android Lollipop for a wider lineup of Nexus devices expected to occur any day now, the official Google Search app has been updated with a brand new design and several new features that make searching for everything from the best sushi in Chicago to Van Gogh research for a school project that much better of an experience.

First and foremost, the Google Search app has been revamped with a Material Design user interface and that includes bold colors, fluid animations and simplified layouts. Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 users also benefit from being able to activate “Ok, Google” searches even when the smartphone is unplugged and the display is off.

The latest version Google’s official app is more effective at organizing your day-to-day life by automatically pulling events that it feels you might want to follow up on, like catching up with Chris over dinner or getting drinks with Susan. Normally, these small events would be buried in your inbox and you might forget to follow up on them later.
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