Google adds yet more search features
Simon Telford / 14 years ago
Ata recent live-streamed event, Google has showcased three new features to be added to desktop search and one more for mobile. Two of the desktop additions are based on features already available on mobile.
Search By Image is inspired by Google Goggle which has been around as an Android app for a while, allowing you to take a photo of something with your phone and then find stuff out about it via Google search. This has now been added to the desktop version and as such you will soon see a camera icon inside the Google images search bar that will allow you to select an online or locally stored image to seach with.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t99BfDnBZcI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Voice Search has been available on Android- which seems to be their testing grounds- and now it is time to add it to the desktop versions, or at least if you are using the Chome browser. This is more aimed at people with Chromebooks but will add functionality for most users which is hopefully quite explanatory.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Q1c0w5QiryM[/youtube]
Instant pages is the new desktop feature but is also a chrome-only feature, this is where the browser doesn’t just anticipate what you’re looking for but it starts preloading the website as well. This has been available via third-party sources as extensions to chrome but Google have made their own version which they claim could save three to five seconds each time they search – although it will put more demand on your internet connection.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_Jn93FDx9oI[/youtube]
The mobile addition is a fairly simple one, which is that if you are using the Location Services with Google then at the bottom of the search page on mobile will be several icons for local services, such as bars, restaurants etc. This will give you one-click access to the local-information that may be fairly useful to you and help you to find a decent restaurant even quicker for instance. This is Google’s attempt to defend itself again Foursquare and Groupon.
