Google Search

Setting Google Now reminders by voice is all very well when you’re walking down the street, but you can feel just a little self-conscious doing it in an open-plan office or coffee-shop. Google now allows you to add reminders by typing them directly into the searchbar on your laptop, reveals the Google Blog.

You don’t have to use the mobile Google Search app to add reminders. Just search Google for add reminder or create reminder, enter a name, a date or a place. You can also enter specific queries like: add reminder to buy milk tomorrow or create reminder to buy sandwich when I am in Chicago. Just click “remind me on Google Now” …

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Microsoft is reportedly blocking Google as a search engine option on some of Nokia’s new Lumia handsets. Windows Phone devices ship with Bing as their default search engine without an option to change platforms. Prior to Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s phone making division, the Finnish company provided users with an option to change a Lumia’s search engine via its web browser, but this appears to be gone from some devices.

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Google, over the past year, has gradually been ramping up the features of which its Knowledge Graph is capable . For those unfamiliar, the Knowledge Graph is the box that appears in search results, either at the top or on the right, with information about your search query. Over the past few days, Google has gradually started integrating step-by-step directions into the Knowledge.

To try this feature out, simply type in a “how-to” search into Google and the steps will appear at the top of the search results page. As you can see in the images above, Google will sometime present you with the materials need to perform your task, while in other instances it will give you step-by-step directions. For shorter tasks, all of the steps will be listed in the Knowledge Graph, while tasks with longer processes require you to click through to the publisher’s website.

Google pulls in the steps from a variety sources. Publishers would obviously prefer that readers have to click through to see all of the steps, but Google doesn’t seem to care. Try it out for yourself now.

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A recent ruling by the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) determined that people had “the right to be forgotten” and mandated that Google remove outdated, unflattering information about them from search queries if requested by an individual. In response to the court’s ruling Mountain View created an online form for people to formally file requests to have old links removed from web searches.

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In case you didn’t know, Google can help you plan your next meal. No, the search behemoth isn’t using its Zagat-owned tech to recommend a restaurant, it’s helping you in the kitchen. Perhaps dormant or maybe new, Google recently outed a filter that lets you pull up an ingredients list when searching for food or a recipe.

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Update: It turns out Google Search/Now on Android is also getting a ton of other new features in addition to the ability to find a parked vehicle (via SearchEngineLand):

• Offline support: Google Now cards will remain loaded when users lose their internet or mobile connections
• Indoor maps: in “some malls” Google Now will offer a searchable directory of stores (US + Japan) and then take users to an indoor map of that mall. We don’t know which particular malls but probably the ones available on the US and Japan lists here. In addition Google has individual store maps (probably coming later) for some retailers such as Best Buy, Home Depot, Ikea and others. It doesn’t have everyone store in those chains however.
• Product search reminders: If you’ve done a previous search for a product online or on a mobile device and you happen to be near a store that carries that product, Google will show you a Now card (kind of like a reminder/notification) about the product.

Google this afternoon has updated its Search app on Android with several new features. The update bumps the app to version 3.4 and has some pretty useful features within it. First off, it adds a Google Now card that offers the ability to automatically detect where you’ve parked and help you find that spot later, a feature that was rumored earlier this month.

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Google is considering giving higher search rankings to websites that use security encryption, according to The Wall Street Journal. If true, this could force more websites to adopt a secure setup, possibly making it harder for cyber criminals to spy on web users. This new idea was recently mentioned at a conference by Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team. Still under consideration, if Google decides to move forward with this process, a change reportedly won’t happen for quite a while. 

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From 9to5Mac:

Chalk up another Google app for iOS update as the app goes all iOS 7-fied as the official app finally receives the treatment. It takes a few seconds to notice the changes as I almost missed the full screen front page that now omits the signal, battery and carrier label. Overall, the update introduces:

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Oh Canada as the country’s Competition Bureau is targeting Google with a formal inquiry. Our neighbors to the north are eyeballing el Goog over concern the company is abusing its position as the worlds most dominant search engine.

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Google announced today that it has added yet another new category to its ever-expanding Knowledge Graph service. Starting today, users can search the make, model, and year of a car to find out a variety of information, directly from the Google search page.

For instance, if you search “Tesla Model S”, the Knowledge Graph will now show up and present you with the MSRP, horsepower, miles-per-gallon, make, and available trims. Different cars show a different set information, as well. Should you search “Ford Focus”, you will be presented with the MSRP, MPG, and horsepower, as well as the engine size, body styles, and other years. Google doesn’t appear to have a whole lot of information in its database at this point. For example, it only has data for the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Ford Focus models.

To try it out for yourself, simply use voice search and say the make and model of a car, or type it into a Google search, just like you would any other search.

Google just announced a major update to Google Search for Android that is going to make finding information a whole lot easier. In simple terms, Google had added app listings to search results which allows your apps to show up in search results, as well as results from Google Play.

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Google noted today on its Google+ page that it has updated search on both the desktop and mobile with new and improved definitions. Google search would previously let users ask for a definition by simply asking, for example, “What’s the definition of fortuitous?” The most recent update makes those definitions even more useful with the addition of sample sentences, synonyms, origin, translations and more:

Now you’ll also see sample sentences that highlight how the word is used, as well as synonyms…Give it a whirl the next time you’re reading an article online and you stumble across an unfamiliar word. In addition, try translating words to one of 60+ languages directly from the box. When you select a language, future definition searches will consistently provide a translation to that same language.

In addition to those features, Google will also offer spoken responses when tapping the microphone icon next to the definition:
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Now that Chrome 29 has gone mainstream, Google has introduced Chrome 30 to the beta stage. This release makes it easier to use Google’s search-by-image feature, which allows you to upload an image and search the internet for webpages that have that image (also great for finding larger sizes of images). Right-click any image on the web in Chrome 30 and you’ll see the option to “Search Google for this image”.

Chrome for Android also sees some improvement in this release with the introduction of new gestures:
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Google announced today on its Google Maps blog that it’s finally tapping into the talent and technology it picked up with its acquisition of Waze back in June to integrate real time incident reports from Waze into Google Maps. The new integration means that when Waze users report incidents for everything from accidents to road closures, Google Maps users on both iOS and Android will now be able to benefit:

Users of Google Maps for Mobile will now benefit from real time incident reports from Waze users. This means when Wazers report accidents, construction, road closures and more on Waze, the updates will also appear on the Google Maps app for Android and iOS.

The features will initially be limited to users in certain locations, including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, UK and the US. In addition, as Google first hinted back in June, the company will also be integrating Google Search into the Waze apps on iOS and Android, while the Waze Map Editor now has access to Google Street View imagery:
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