Starting today, certain aspects of Google’s mobile search are receiving a big speed boost. The most interesting feature that is being added is a new “Quick view” tab which will appear on certain page results. For example, as shown above, when a search is done for a list of poker hands, a quick view can be seen from Wikipedia to make finding the answer you are looking for even easier. 

Along with Quick view, Google search has also enhanced returns for Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, there’s a faster way to get to the Rotten Tomatoes page with just the info you need most — just look for a new quick link for “In Theaters” underneath the main Rotten Tomatoes link when you search on your mobile phone. You’ll see these expandable sitelinks appear for many sites to help you get to a specific section quickly.

As a note, Quick view is currently only available for Wikipedia pages in English, but they are looking to expand this to additional sites.

Via: Inside Search

Google Mobile Search Just Got Even Faster, Adds Quick View and Rotten Tomatoes Enhancements is a post from: Droid Life

After yesterday’s big news that Andy Rubin was stepping down from the Android team, it seemed that things were changing internally at Google. Today, more switches have been made by Larry Page, who announced that the Mapping and Commerce divisions are no longer working together under one person. Senior VP Jeff Huber is stepping down from his position overseeing the two divisions, which will then merge with other Google entities.

Maps is going to work with the Search division, while commerce is heading for a union with the marketing people. The moves make sense, considering search and maps go well together and what is advertising for other than making money? Jeff Huber’s new position will be moving over to work at Google X, Google’s top-secret lab division.

Big stuff going down in Mountain View this week.

Via: BGR

Google Continues Internal Shake Ups, Mapping and Commerce Division Split Up is a post from: Droid Life

Today is a day for pomp and circumstance, so let’s take the time to remember past Presidents of these great United States. For example, Martin Van Buren. Don’t remember him? No one really does, except for his awesome sideburns. Google Search does though and shows off Google’s Knowledge Graph in this short, but cute commercial.

In Honor of Inauguration Day: Google Brings Martin Van Buren To Life is a post from: Droid Life

As an Android fan, I know I’ve looked at some car navigation systems before and thought “Google Maps does this so much better.” Today’s news sounds like a few car manufacturers felt the same way. Hyundai and Kia have partnered with Google so that their UVO voice system now works with Google Search, Maps and Places APIs to find you all sorts of cool stuff while you’re driving from place to place.

Those two companies join the likes of Audi, Mercedes and Tesla as manufacturers who all include the suite of Google apps in their vehicles. Google Maps is one of the most detailed databases and putting that in dashboards of cars is infinitely useful. Let’s hope that more companies catch onto this down the road.

Via: Google

Google Teaming Up With Kia and Other Car Makers to Bring Google Maps to Vehicles is a post from: Droid Life

This morning, Google Search received an update, but it must be quite minor given that Google didn’t update the changelog. The app did recently receive a big update, so we are guessing this is more of a bug fixing update or something along those lines.

If you haven’t already, go grab it.

Play Link

Cheers ViZZiATO!

Google Search Receives Minor Update, Changelog Currently M.I.A. is a post from: Droid Life

Google is rolling out more interactive search results on mobile phones and tablets. For example, when searching for math answers like I have done above, instead of just giving you the answer, Google Search displays an entire calculator for you to edit the equation to what you need. Bossy. Other inquiries that will see this Google Now card-esque makeover are Stocks, Flights, Currency Conversion, Holidays, Unit Conversion, and Dictionary Definitions.

Another example, when checking a flight status, Google will display a progress bar with a little plane icon for you to visually see how far along the flight is. It will move further towards the right as it approaches its final destination. The roll out has started today, so go check out the updates on your phone or tablet inside a web browser. Just another reason why Google kicks butt.

Via: Inside Search

Google Makes Mobile Search from Phones and Tablets Interactive and Content Rich is a post from: Droid Life

Moments ago, Google unwrapped their latest search feature called Handwrite. Once enabled on your mobile device, you can search for items by writing them out on your screen with a finger. As you can see in the screen shot above, the search works just as would if you were typing them, by providing suggestions along the way. This isn’t meant to replace traditional typing or voice search, but it could prove to be very useful should you be in a situation where typing is not optimal nor is speaking aloud to your phone. Just draw out some words, and let Google do the rest of the work.

They recommend that you use it in Chrome on Android, but it should work in most browsers. It does requires you to be running Android 2.3+. Give it a try!

Setup:

Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Via:  Google

Google Introduces “Handwrite” for Mobile Searches is a post from: Droid Life

Weather searches from your tablet are now more beautiful than ever. The Google Search team introduced weather visualizations to bigger screened devices today, which as you can see, look a heck of a lot like the cards that are found in Google Now. These new visualizations are interactive, meaning you can slide the hourly temperature meter for up to 10 days, scroll day-by-day to check the forecast, and toggle between temperature, precipitation, and wind (not showing on my screenie for some reason).

To get the weather to be displayed this way, simply open a browser and type “weather” in the address bar.

Via:  Google+ | Phandroid

Tip: Type “Weather” Into Google From Your Tablet and See Beautiful Weather Visualizations is a post from: Droid Life

Search, the cornerstone that Google is built on is getting ready to receive an overhaul pretty soon. Coming “over the next months” are semantic search results that can tell what you are looking for based on how and where you type it. The difference between searching for “an apple” or the the company Apple will be more apparent to the search engine and should make things much easier to find.

Aside from using the search functions on our browsers, where can we expect to see this? Google Assistant will most certainly make use of this feature whenever it rolls out. It seems inevitable that the two become closely related because the applications primary function will be to find things for you. One of the biggest complaints of Siri is that she is a “dumb search engine” that doesn’t always recognize what the user is looking for. Could this give Google the leg up in the voice actions department?

Via: PhoneArena

Google Prepping Semantic Search Results, Will Make Google Assistant That Much Smarter is a post from: Droid Life

Click here to view the embedded video.

To our mates from across the pond, we would like to welcome you into the wonderful world of Google Voice Actions.  Released today to the Android Market in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain, the updated Google Search app makes hands-free searching, calling, and navigating a breeze.

To our friends here in the states, just watch the video and see if you don’t find yourself talking with a British accent for the next 5 minutes.

Via:  Google Mobile

Google Voice Actions Make Their Way Into the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain is a post from: Droid Life

The Google mobile team is at it again – this time with a simplified search experience for tablets.  To quote them, they have “increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with” which makes complete sense after looking at a quick result for droid life.  And also, as you can see in the screenshot above, the overall look has become much less cluttered making content much easier to absorb.     

The updated search page will roll out to Andoid 3.1+ and iPad devices in the “coming days,” but could be there for you already.

Via:  Google Mobile

Google Search Experience on Tablets Gets a Makeover, Simplification is the Theme is a post from: Droid Life

When Google announced “Voice Actions” for Froyo, there was one in particular which they advertised but appeared not to work correctly for, well, everyone.  Luckily for us all, the G2 leaked system build keeps pumping out awesome updates to our favorite apps including a “set alarm…” voice action that had previously not been available.  As you can see from the screenies above, the one on the left is the old version, with the right screenie showing it working flawlessly.

Download:  DeskClockGoogle.apk

Install as you would any other application, just make sure you have Android 2.2.

Source:  XDA Forums

Cheers garbaged!

Download: New Desk Clock, Fixes “Set Alarm” Voice Action is a post from: Droid Life