search
Latest
Google can point you toward the popular clothes in many stores
Online clothes shopping is still something of a pain. You might not always realize what choices you have, let alone which places have the best prices. Google is trying to help, at least. It's introducing a search feature on mobile that piles results for popular clothes, accessories and shoes into one section. You could find the ideal floral dress or puffer jacket with just a few keywords. You can filter results by department, size and style, and other tools help you quickly find buyer reviews and flip through photos.
Google Search now lets you add movies and shows to a 'Watchlist'
Your Google Search results may now be a lot more helpful when it comes to keeping track of all the shows and movies you're keeping an eye on. The tech giant has rolled out a new card for the mobile results page that lets you add TV series and film titles to a "Watchlist" and a "Watched" bookmarks collection, 9to5Google has discovered.
Google groups news results by story to show you relevant articles
Google is making it a little easier to sift through news stories -- and potentially find more informative stories in the process. It's rolling out a search feature that uses AI to organize news articles by story in carousels. This not only helps you focus on a specific topic, but increases the chances that you'll see stories with different or deeper perspectives. You might be at less risk of trapping yourself in a news bubble.
Google's 2019 search trends mark a big year for Baby Yoda and 'Endgame'
Disney captured the 2019 zeitgeist in multiple ways, according Google's annual year in search roundup. While the streaming service is just a month old, "Disney Plus" was the top-trending search term of the year in the US, meaning it had the highest spike in traffic over a period of time. A lot of that may be down to the big Disney+ outage, along with The Mandalorian series featuring "Baby Yoda" that has been one of the biggest reasons to sign up for the streaming service.
Google Assistant will place Dunkin' Donuts orders, finally
Google just added a handful of voice control features to Google Assistant. You can now manage notes and lists in select third-party apps, ask Assistant to search your photos, search for podcasts by topic and set reminders for the whole family. You can also place Dunkin' Donuts orders -- just what everyone was hoping for.
EU investigates Google data collection practices
No, European antitrust regulators still aren't done looking into Google's practices. The European Commission told Reuters in a statement that it's conducting a "preliminary investigation" into Google's data collection. While it didn't go into detail, a leaked document indicated that the focuses were on local search, ads (including ad targeting), sign-in services and web browsers, among "others." It's covering the core of Google's businesses, to put it another way.
Antitrust investigation of Google reportedly expands to Android
Tonight CNBC reports that an ongoing antitrust investigation of Google undertaken by 50 attorneys general is expanding. While it started by looking into Google's advertising business, it has apparently, as expected, expanded its scope to include search and the Android platform. Over the years Google has reached into more services -- next up: checking -- and platforms with increasingly deep ties to one another, and as the investigation concerns the use of customer data, it seems obvious that it will reach every part of the company eventually. The 48 state AGs, as well as two representing Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, did not comment on the latest report, while Google said in a September blog post that it would cooperate with investigations.
Google will help you pronounce difficult words
Google wants to make it easier to learn word pronunciations. Today, it introduced a new Search feature that will let users practice saying tricky words. When you look up a pronunciation, Google will provide an answer, and when you say the word into your phone's microphone, Search will let you know if you said it correctly.
Microsoft tests Quick Search buttons in Windows 10
Microsoft has made a few small tweaks to the Windows 10 search function, designed to help users get everyday info that bit quicker: Search Home will now have tabs for weather, news, "today in history" and movies at the bottom of the window. The company has also made a few tiny -- and almost imperceptible -- changes to the design for web preview in search results. This is what it looks like now.
Microsoft's Chromium Edge browser arrives January 15th
After launching a beta test for the new Chromium Edge in September, Microsoft is now gearing up to officially launch the browser on January 15th, 2020. Over the weekend, the company also revealed a new pinwheel-like Edge logo, which looks like an offshoot of Chrome's logo. You can test out the near-final Release Candidate version today, which should be stable enough for anyone to use, but also serves to let IT administrators to prepare for the new Edge. And speaking of IT folks, Microsoft is also debuting new Bing features for businesses, which gives the search engine the ability to index intranet files and corporate data.
Google wants to give doctors web-like searches for medical records
Google made much ado of its recently created Health unit, but it didn't offer much insight into what that division would actually... well, do. Now, however, it's considerably clearer. Google Health lead David Feinberg and CNBC sources have outlined some of the ideas his team has, and they revolve around (surprise!) search for both you and your doctor. Feinberg envisions a search bar that would help doctors search medical records like they do the web. A doctor could search for "87" to find an 87-year-old patient instead of using the patient's name, as an example.
Incognito Mode for Google Maps has arrived on Android
Earlier this month Google announced that its new Incognito feature for Maps had started to roll out, and now it should be here on your Android devices. Android Police points out a post on the support page from yesterday indicating that the rollout has begun in earnest. While it could take a few days to reach everyone (iOS support is still "coming soon"), if it's available for you, then enabling it only requires a few steps:
Google now understands more conversational search queries
Google Search has just gotten better at deciphering your sometimes conversational, sometimes awkwardly phrased queries. That's made possible by implementing a neural network-based technique for language processing called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT, which gives Search the power to recognize the importance of word sequences. The company says it's the product's "biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of Search."
Google wants to be your guide to Champions League soccer
The UEFA Champions League has already reached the group stages, but Google wants you to know it has your back for the rest of the season. Search for "Champions League" on Google and you now get a whole suite of tools to follow the competition, including the usual scores, schedules and standings as well as video recaps and detailed news like club lineups and trade rumors. A new wheel makes it easy to see who's facing who.
FISA court: FBI use of NSA's electronic surveillance data was illegal
A US court ruled that some of the FBI's electronic surveillance activities violated the constitutional privacy rights of Americans. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) deemed that FBI officials improperly searched a National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence database for info on Americans. The ruling was made last year but just revealed by the intelligence community today.
Google removes news previews in France to avoid paying publishers
Google has announced that it will not pay publishers in France for search results, and will instead show stripped back results for News. That will happen next month when France enforces new rules base on Europe's controversial copyright law. "We will no longer display an overview of the content in France for European press publishers, unless the publisher tells us that it's okay," said Google in a blog. It added that publishers will get new webmaster settings that will allow them to specify how much information they want to preview in News results.
Google will highlight important parts of videos in search results
Web searches can easily help you find videos, but that's not much good if you're looking for a specific segment. Do you really want to spend minutes scrubbing to find a relevant section? You might not have to. Google search can now highlight specific moments in a video based on timestamps supplied by creators. You can jump directly to the fifth step in a how-to guide, or jump to a favorite song in a concert.
Vizio's updated Alexa app can search for movies and TV shows
VIzio has updated its SmartCast TVs with a better Alexa experience that will greatly expand the basic functionality they've had up until now. By enabling Vizio's new Alexa skill, you'll be able to simply ask for a show like This is Us, and SmartCast TVs will find it across multiple apps, complete with pricing and video formats. You can then use Alexa to launch apps like Amazon Prime Video or Hulu.
Amazon's search could push customers toward in-house products
Amazon reportedly tweaked its product-search algorithm to favor products that are more profitable to the company. People who worked on the algorithm say the change could give Amazon's own brands a boost, The Wall Street Journal reports. If Amazon is intentionally using search to promote its own goods, it will likely draw more criticism from antitrust regulators.
Apple tweaked App Store searches so its apps don't always rank first
Did you notice that Apple's software was suddenly less dominant in the App Store this summer? There's a good reason for that. Apple confirmed to the New York Times that it changed App Store search algorithms in July so that its own apps didn't overwhelm the top results. For more than a year, its own titles would dominate searches for basic terms, even when the apps in question weren't related to a given query -- you sometimes had to scroll through 14 apps before you got to a third-party result for "podcast," for example. Apple attributed the behavior to a search engine feature that sometimes grouped apps by developer, with popularity also playing a role.
