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

Google Maps and Search add business holiday hours

Unsure if your favorite restaurant or shop is open or closed this holiday season? Google is helping you out in this department by adding holiday hours of businesses. Businesses where holiday hours aren’t listed will show a warning message that alerts you that actual business hours might be different because of the holidays. If the shop you want to visit is indeed closed during the time you want to visit it, you can select the Open Now filter to see which shops or restaurant is open nearby.

Source: Google Maps

Google now links you to iOS apps within Safari mobile

With Spotlight Search in iOS 9 it’s much easier to be redirected to apps you want to access, so why would you even need to use search engines to look for these things? That’s what Google is trying to fight against. The company’s hoping you still use its search engine to do as much you can, even in Apple’s iOS ecosystem. And so this time if you search for iOS apps or contents in these apps within Google search, you will be redirected to the downloaded app or to the App Store. Previously, you could only do this in Google Chrome browser or Google app. But now you can also do this within the mobile Safari app.

Source: Google Developers | Via: The Verge

Google now shows tweets in desktop search results

A few months back Google started adding recent and relevant tweets to your searches on mobile. This time, Google's bringing that feature to desktop search results as well. If you type in a person and the word Twitter, you might see their recent tweets. But if you type in something more general like NASA Twitter, for example, you'll get both tweets from NASA's official Twitter account and tweets from other users talking about the space agency. This new feature should be rolling out to all users. 

Source: Google | Via: Engadget