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.
Google appears to be widely testing a slight visual redesign of mobile Search that tweaks the appearance of results and their cards. Over the past few hours, several users have spotted the change in both the Google app for Android and iOS, as well as on the mobile web.
As noted in a new report from Bloomberg, Google has started removing private medical records from search results. Google added a new line to its policy page to reflect the change, saying that “confidential, personal medical records of private people” will no longer appear in results…
Google loves jumping in on popular trends, and today it’s pushed out one for the latest — fidget spinners. You know, those spinning pieces of plastic that have shown up in dozens of viral videos and the hands of everyone with a few dollars that may as well have been set on fire.
Hunting for a new job is not easy by any means, but it’s finally getting easier with more jobs available and plenty of great online tools to find them. As announced at I/O, Google wants to make job hunting even easier with a new search tool, and it’s going live starting today.
After the Wall Street Journal removed the well-known trick of using Google to access articles behind a paywall, their Search traffic fell by nearly half. While this led to an increase in paying subscribers since February, the publication argues that Google should rank subscription content equally.