Google Now gets new features in latest Search update

Google has been rolling out new functionality to quite a few of its services lately, including full-size photo support for Google+, improved auto-complete predictions in Gmail, and data autosync for Chrome for Android, to name a few. Now we're seeing another update, this time for Google Now. With this update, Android users will find additional Google Now settings in Google Search, including real-time package tracking.

Google Now is the handy service from Google that offers you everything you need right before you need it automatically, available to those running Android Jelly Bean handsets and the Google Search app. It does this via cards, which provide things such as airport and gate information as your flight nears, for example. If you're not familiar with the service, you can check out our hands-on review of it here.

With today's Google Search for Android update, which is available from the Play Store now, a couple new features have been added to Now, with perhaps the best update being to the package tracking feature. Once updated, users will be able to track packages in real time from supported carriers if they have a tracking number for the shipment. The card has been updated, as well.

Results are said to be faster with this update, but you'll have to check that one out for yourself (let us know if you've noticed a speed increase in the comments!), and in addition, settings and information can be accessed about cards directly from the card via a small "i" icon, which allows users to, for example, mark the card as something they aren't interested in to help generate better results in the future.

[via Droid Life]