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Google says an open API is coming for Google Now cards

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Google Now Nest

As reported on by The Next Web, Google at South by Southwest this weekend gave an interesting look at its plans for Google Now. Aparna Chennapragada, Google Now’s Director of Product Management, discussed Google’s personalized predictive data service and revealed some details regarding the future of the product. Chennapragada revealed that the company soon plans to launch an open API for Google Now that will allow third-party services to integrate it into their apps.


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Google Flight search results now include “Happiness Factors”

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Google today has announced a new partnership with Routehappy that adds more detailed information to Google’s Flight service. As part of the partnership, Google Flights will show what Routehappy calls “Happiness Factors,” which include things such as legroom availability, in-seat power, and WiFi.

Routehappy calls the information it sources “Flightpad” and claims that it is the most comprehensive and accurate database for flight information.

Routehappy researches and verifies flight amenities by aircraft, cabin, schedule, and route on a constant basis from hundreds of disparate sources to create Flightpad, the most comprehensive, accurate comparable product attribute dataset for flights worldwide. Flightmatch is a set of powerful and intelligent algorithms that dynamically match and score Happiness Factors, duration, and ratings for billions of possible flight combinations

The information will start to appear now in Google Flights results. You can view them yourself on the Google Flights site now.


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Google now serving up cocktail recipes in Knowledge Graph

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Google has been beefing up Knowledge Graph a lot lately, and now it appears that they’re adding yet another useful set of information to the top of your Google searches: cocktail recipes. Most recently, the Mountain View company added social links for brands, fact-checked health information, and even full song lyrics.

As more information is being added to Knowledge Graph, users going to Google to search for information are needing to go past the search results much less often. This has been a problem particularly with the introduction of lyrics to the Graph, after which many sites that depended on Google traffic surely saw a significant dip—and some may have even gone out of business.

While cocktail recipes in Knowledge Graph may not be as comprehensive of a substitute as lyrics were, there’s probably a little bit of threat here to sites that servce up cocktail recipes as well.

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Google adds new security features to Chrome, Search, and ads to help block malicious sites

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Google has updated several online security features to help protect users from malicious sites and content. Chrome has gained new warnings about sites that attempt to fool users into downloading unwanted software, providing an option to go back to the previous page and avoid these types of sites.

Search has been updated to make it harder for those sites to show up in results, and Google has started disabling ads that link to them. All of these moves continue Google’s recent push to enhance security on its products. The company recently helped improve security by providing users an incentive to enable two-factor authentication.

Judge dismisses class-action anti-trust suit against Google over Android & Search practices

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Last May, Google was hit with an class-action anti-trust lawsuit over several of its Android and Search practices. The case centered around the idea that Google was forcing Android handset manufacturers to make its search engine the default on all their devices, as well as pre-load apps such as YouTube. These practices, in turn, drove up the price of Android devices. Reuters reports this evening, however, that a federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit due to a lack of evidence from the plaintiffs.


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New search box user interface rolling out to Play Store Android app

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A server-side update is rolling out the Play Store Android app that packs a pretty subtle-yet-big update to the way search works. Currently, there’s a large toolbar at the top of the app labeled “Play Store,” and searching for something means tapping the magnifying glass icon in the top-right corner. This update, which was first posted about on the Google+ page of Kirill Grouchnikov, replaces that toolbar with a much more prominent search box.

Additionally, users will notice that tapping the magnifying glass from elsewhere within the app will slide out the search box from the right. This update will bring the Play Store app more in line with the design of some of Google’s other apps, the one you’re most familiar with likely being the Google Now launcher:

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According to another post on Grouchnikov’s Google+ page, the update is coming “soon”. And, as mentioned, this is a server-side update that Google will push over-the-air. Don’t bother checking the Play Store because the app is going to be updated behind the scenes. Like magic.

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Google introduces new carousel interface in mobile search results

Greece-FrameGoogle today, in a post on its Inside Search blog, has revealed a new interface for browsing news on its mobile website. Starting now, when you search for a topic, you’ll see a “carousel” of recent articles regarding your query that you can horizontally scroll through. The carousel contains articles from a single source of information.


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Yahoo unveils new suite of dev tools including search integration for other apps

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After announcing its first dev con last December, Yahoo today kicked off its mobile developer conference in San Francisco where it unveiled five new products for mobile app makers. As suspected, Yahoo revealed the latest tools from Flurry, the mobile ad and analytics firm it acquired last July.

This includes Flurry Analytics Explorer, a new dashboard for the Flurry Analytics system which it says enables developers to discover more insights with than before, and Flurry Pulse, which lets app builders “share app signals with partners using their existing Flurry SDK implementations and the click of a button.”
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Google’s search and YouTube expert Udi Manber announces departure

Google's Udi Manber

Google’s Udi Manber

Google this afternoon has announced that Udi Manber, a computer scientist who worked on search and YouTube, is leaving the company. Manber says that he will be joining the National Institutes of Health.

“I had a wonderful nine years at Google and YouTube, but I could not resist the amazing opportunities at NIH,” Manber said in a statement obtained by The Wall Street Journal. “Improving access to medical knowledge can have a big impact. I hope to help.”


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Google adding fact-checked health information to Knowledge Graph

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Google’s Knowledge Graph–which highlights fact-checked info at the top of certain types of search results–is being expanded to include health-related searches. So next time you want to check whether you have the common cold or a rare strain of Ebola, Google should provide the necessary reassurance.

Starting in the next few days, when you ask Google about common health conditions, you’ll start getting relevant medical facts right up front from the Knowledge Graph. We’ll show you typical symptoms and treatments, as well as details on how common the condition is—whether it’s critical, if it’s contagious, what ages it affects, and more. For some conditions you’ll also see high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators.

Google says that the information is pulled from “high-quality medical sources across the web” and then checked by both its own doctors and others from the Mayo Clinic … 
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Twitter reaches new deal w/ Google to have tweets appear instantly in search results

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Google and Twitter have allegedly come to an agreement for tweets to appear in search results, according to a report out of Bloomberg. During the first half of this year, tweets will begin to be visible in Google search results as soon as they are posted. As part of this deal, Bloomberg reports that Twitter is giving Google access to the entire stream of data posted and shared by its 284 million users. Previously, Google had to crawl Twitter’s site for information.


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A built-in mortgage calculator is now rolling out to Google Search

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A new feature is rolling out to Google Search that puts a smart mortgage calculator right at the top of results for certain search terms (via Search Engine Land). Specifically, the above interactive quick answer will show up for search terms such as mortgage calculator, loan interest calculator, interest calculator, and many others. Personally, we couldn’t get it to show up yet.

After you fill in the mortgage amount, interest rate, and mortgage period, the little widget will spit out the total cost of the mortgage as well as what the monthly payment would be. The feature was first being tested a couple of months ago, but it appears that many Google users across the net are now seeing it live.

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Google Flight Search expands to Switzerland

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 trying to regain search marketshare from Yahoo w/ new messages for Firefox users

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Late last year, Mozilla announced a joint five-year partnership with Yahoo that saw the default search engine in Firefox change from Google to Yahoo. It seemed unlikely at the time that Google would notice too big of a loss from that deal, but following contrary reports from earlier this month, Search Engine Land has also noticed that the company has started trying to convince Firefox users to switch to Google Search.


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Google adds social links for brands to Knowledge Graph search results

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As noticed by Search Engine Land, Google recently added a new section to its Knowledge Graph for brands searches. As you can see in the screenshot above, searching for a brand like McDonald’s will show a new “Profiles” section including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Instagram accounts. As of today, the same is not true about celebrity Knowledge Graph results. Updates to the Knowledge Graph usually sneak in under the radar, but they seem to keep coming nonetheless. This update follows last month’s Knowledge Graph update, which added a new lyrics section.

Google’s share of US search market at lowest level since 2008 as Mozilla/Yahoo partnership bites

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Google’s share of the US search market has fallen to its lowest level since at least 2008 following the deal in which Mozilla switched the default Firefox search engine from Google to Yahoo in November. Yahoo saw its share increase from 8.6% to 10.4% in the one month since the deal was signed.

The figure was revealed by StatCounter, who said that Firefox users represented just over 12% of US Internet users as of last month … 
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New Years Google doodle features Ice Bucket Challenge, Flappy Bird, other homages to 2014

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Google has updated its homepage today with a cute little doodle for New Years Eve, and is paying homage to a slew of notable trending topics and human achievements from 2014. Of the most interesting things that happened this year (according to Google trends at least) were the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Flappy Bird, landing on an comet, amongst many others.
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Google adds song lyrics to Knowledge Graph search results

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Every once in a while, we get a new feature added to Google’s Knowledge Graph (the smart results that appear at the top of the search page). Today, Google has added the handy ability to see results for song lyrics right on the search page (via TechCrunch), meaning that websites focusing solely on providing lyrics and fighting for the top of Google’s results in this category might see a bit of a downturn in traffic…


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Google iOS app updated w/ Material Design, Street View integration, more

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Google is rolling out a completely redesigned version of its iPhone and iPad app with its Material Design look and feel right down to the app icon.

The latest version of the search app now presents a bottom navigation bar (which can slide out of view) that presents a persistent Google button for searching for new information. The navigation bar also offers a button for quickly accessing recent search pages, something that feels similar to multitasking between apps on Android.

Also notable as part of the redesign is the optimization searching for photos has received. In the latest version of Google’s iOS app, image results now take on a full-screen, mosaic look for presenting larger results. The update also packs in deep Google Maps integration for location searches including support for Google Street View right in the app for iPhone users. You can read the full change log below:
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Google search in Chrome for Android gets 100-150 milliseconds faster thanks to reactive prefetch

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Google has today announced that a new feature called reactive prefetch has been rolled out to mobile search, making searches somewhere in the realm of 100 to 150 milliseconds faster—a notable improvement if you’re on a fast enough internet connection. Sadly, the feature is limited to those using the Chrome app for Android at the current time because, according to Ilya Grigorik, “it is the only browser that supports (a) dynamically inserted prefetch hints, and (b) reliably allows prefetch requests to persist across navigations.”

This is a powerful pattern and one that you can use to accelerate your site as well. The key insight is that we are not speculatively prefetching resources and do not incur unnecessary downloads. Instead, we wait for the user to click the link and tell us exactly where they are headed, and once we know that, we tell the browser which other resources it should fetch in parallel – aka, reactive prefetch!

How does the feature work? Unlike other prefetch methods, reactive prefetch will wait for the user to click a link so that Google knows exactly where they intend to go, at which point the search engine will tell the browser to fetch certain parts of the page in parallel—namely, resources that Google has determined are likely to slow page load times. This is possible due to Google search crawlers getting an idea, for every page on the web, what parts should be “hinted” at to prefetch reactively.

You may or may not notice the improvement, but it’s rolling out to mobile search for Chrome on Android today.

Google reveals plans for kid-friendly versions of Chrome, YouTube, Search, and more

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Earlier this year, a report emerged claiming that Google was hard at work making its services more appropriate and accessible for children. The report noted that the company wanted to overhaul its online products to allow children to legally use them. USA Today has now published a new report, confirming the rumors earlier this year regarding specific services catered to young kids. Google VP of Engineering Pavni Diwanji told the news outlet that Google is currently working on versions of its most popular products, such as Search and YouTube, for kids aged 12 and under.


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This is what Material Design would look like on Google.com

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Material Design–announced at Google I/O 2014 in June of this year–was introduced as Google’s new way of presenting a coherent, beautiful user experience across apps, and one of the first pieces of software to exemplify the new look is the latest release of Android, version 5.0 Lollipop.  But Google is going beyond Android and has already started incorporating this design scheme within many of its other products, including the online interface for Google Docs, for instance. One place that hasn’t seen a Material overhaul (yet) is Google’s main search engine, but thanks to designer Aurélien Salomon, we have an idea of what it might look like–and it’s gorgeous.


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EU panel wants Google to expand ‘right to be forgotten’ practice to prevent workarounds

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A European Union panel is trying to get Google to expand the recently passed “right to forgotten” law to the company’s international search engine Google.com. The group is arguing that it’s too easy for people using local versions of Google’s search URL to bypass de-listed links by visiting Mountain View’s primary web search URL which is currently not subject to the controversial ordinance.


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