Google app on iOS now faster than ever

Google’s giving its iOS users more reason to continue using its app—it’s now faster than ever, which the company says will help you save time. And while the speed difference might not be noticeable, Google says it’s there. Google promises these improvements save all iOS app users a combined 6.5 million hours this year. The Google app for iOS also now supports Accelerated Mobile Pages, which are news articles from different publications that are optimized to load instantly (think Facebook’s Instant Articles). You’d see the word AMP and a lightning bolt for articles that support this feature. You’ll see them when you’re in the Top Stories section. Aside from that, sports fans will now be able to watch highlights from your favorite teams right from Google Now cards. Just tap the sports highlight card and you’re good to go.

Source: Google Search blog

Google brings saved image searches to the desktop

The Pinterest-style photo bookmarking you can do with Google Image Search makes its way out of your mobile devices and into your desktop. Google’s released an update so you can save photos from your browser and organize them by folder on your desktop. The features are similar to what you get on mobile. You just need to click on the star to favorite an item. After that you can tag said photo and add this to a collection. This way you can save those images no matter what device you use. It’s currently available in the U.S. and we’re hoping it makes its way here soon, too.

Source: Google Inside Search | Via: The Next Web

Google Search on Android brings more detailed entertainment-related results

Your search on your favorite artists just got a bit more detailed on Google for Android. The app will now show you tabbed results pages for your favorite artists, TV shows, and the like. For example Android Central tried out The Avett Brothers. The results showed an overview that had things like songs, albums, and upcoming events. Each of these items even get their own tabs so you can delve further in what you want to find out. You even get the option to listen to these artists on your installed music apps.

Android smartphone and tablet users should be seeing this feature now. iOS users have to wait for a bit for the feature will roll out on iOS soon.

Source: Google | Via: Android Central

Google tests out app streaming on Android

Sometimes you just want to try out an app to see if it’s worth spending time or money (or both) on. Google’s now taking advantage the world outside of mobile webpage search with its new experiment. Google Search is introducing app streaming on Android devices. Search results for sites like Chimani and HotelTonight will give you access to streamed versions of their mobile apps without having to download the app to your phone. But Google cautions you need good Wi-Fi connection for this.

Google’s reasoning is sometimes the searches you do have answers that are within apps. Google already has over 100 billion deep links into apps in their index such as those from Facebook, Airbnb, Instagram, and Pinterest. And according to them, 40 percent of what people search surface content within apps. Before this, they’ve only been able to show those that match web content. Now, they hope to give you access to “app-first” content as you use Search. Google’s working with a handful of partners at the moment but they hope to expand this.

Source: Google | Via: Engadget