Search

Anyone who has experienced the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole will know first hand how dangerous it can be to have quick access to interconnected information. Even worse if such information is related to or contains visual representation in the form of photos and graphs. And yet that is exactly what Google will soon be offering to anyone searching for images on their mobile phones, giving them the information they never knew they wanted right at their fingertips, literally.

Continue Reading

Google pretty much wants Search to be pretty much the one place you get all your Internet-related and sometimes even app-related needs. Want to search for a restaurant? Search. Want to reserve a car? Search. Want to ask what's in stock at Walmart? In the past, you'd have to call the store or at the very least strike up a conversation in Google Maps. Well, now you can do that right from Google Search, too, at least on Android, that is.

Continue Reading

The COVID-19 coronavirus has definitely changed the world in more ways than one. Until cures or even at least a vaccine has been discovered, the way we interact with each other and do businesses will have to change and adapt to what is being called the "new normal". For some businesses, that means a change in operations and hours and Google My Business is now giving them more flexibility in how they want to show those changes to customers via Google Search and Google Maps.

Continue Reading

Faced with a new reality, the world seems to have gone into a development and creation spree to make new experiences that could be safely done inside the house. Many of those involved the passive consumption of content but a few have also been crafted to foster creativity and learning. Naturally, kids are one of the biggest audiences of these new experiences and, fortunately, Google is finally putting its previously dormant AR chops to good news to let kids learn new things without them even noticing they're actually studying rather than playing.

Continue Reading

When people say they are searching on the Internet for information, they usually mean using Google Search, whether they're aware of it or not. Google's biggest and most universal Internet service has become the gateway to information but is sometimes also used to deceive people. That happens especially in times of crisis and confusion, which is why Google specifically formatted and curated COVID-19 search results in late January. Now it is stepping up that game not just with more data but with a whole website dedicated to official and verified information about the coronavirus.

Continue Reading

After six months of beta testing with major brands like Adobe, Spotify, and Method, Reddit rolled out "Trending Takeovers." This is an advertisement platform product in which the "trending today" system on Reddit can be "sponsored" by brands. They'll appear in links very similar to all other trending links, much like Google includes paying brands to appear in search results.

Continue Reading

Today Google announced that they've got a timeline for when they'll move to mobile-first indexing for all websites starting in September of 2020. For most websites, this won't be a big deal. Most modern websites - news sites and social networks especially - have been ready to roll with "mobile friendly" design for several years at least. It's the old guard that should worry.

Continue Reading

With no favorable resolution in sight yet, Huawei has practically been forced to truly roll out its own apps and service to replace Google's. It's not easy to accomplish in a few months what Google has been doing for years and the lack of some functionality is testament to that. One thing that has been noticeably missing in the newly-launched Huawei Mobile Services is a counterpart to Google Search. Apparently, even that is now in the works but it does raise questions and concerns about Huawei's Search replacement.

Continue Reading

A Windows 10 update revealed this week included a major change to the search system, creating what appears to be a robust system that'll compete with MacOS' Spotlight feature. This update will come in Windows 10 update 2004, a system that'll be delivered to the average user in the very near future. This version 2004 will improve the full File Explorer system - the most basic bit of the entire OS, the part that makes the OS usable by the average user, and - importantly - the average MacOS user looking to make a switch.

Continue Reading

Misinformation and attention-seeking nonsense is appearing on social networks as coronavirus is declared a public health emergency worldwide. Social media brands like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others are in the process of enacting crack-downs on the spread of health-threatening and/or public safety-threatening coronavirus-centric information that's false or otherwise unverified. One way the networks have begun to do this is to attach notes to pages with hashtags, or as Facebook calls them, "pop-ups with credible information."

Continue Reading

The World Health Organization or WHO just declared a global health emergency on account of the novel coronavirus situation gripping the world. That will unsurprisingly trigger a flood of dread and panic and, of course, Google searches. Knowing too well that it is in the position to make a lasting first impression, the tech giant switched on an SOS Alert for such searches to surface information from the WHO and other authoritative sources over potentially misleading ones.

Continue Reading

Today Google updated the way Google Search results appeared in web browsers on desktop computers after a similar redesign earlier this month. The most visual bit of this update - the most prominent, easy to see, and central element of this update - is the favicon. As it was with mobile UI for Google Search results updated in May of 2019, so too shall it be for Google Search results on desktop computers - or at least that's what Google suggested on the 17th.

Continue Reading