What Google Just Announced- Now on
Tap- is a Bombshell
With the new service -Now on Tap -you can get contextual search info
around almost anything you're doing, provided there is text and data that
Google can pull from the app itself. Now on Tap could change everything about
your phone
What Google just announced at its IO conference is a bombshell for
the future of the company. For years the search giant has witnessed the
chipping away of its core product -search -due to the rise of mobile
applications and their siloed-off experiences.
Users are engaging more and more with programmes that have no
attachment or often need for search on the broad web, and as a result Google's
position as the owner of our habits, interests and needs on the Internet has
looked increasingly at risk.
Google might have just changed its trajectory.
The company demoed a new feature of its Android OS which allows
its Now service (a dashboard of notifications focused on your life and
interests) to plug in as a layer that essentially hovers above any app running
on your phone or tablet. Activated by the home button, it's always there.
This means that you can get contextual search information around
almost anything you're doing, provided there is text and data that Google can
pull from the app itself. And the best part is that developers won't have to
make any changes to their existing software to allow the new service -dubbed
Now on Tap -to bring search and context into the user's view.
For instance, while listening to music in Spotify, you can search
for more info on an artist, or if you're talking about a restaurant in
WhatsApp, Google can pull up data on the place and even help you make
reservations.And this is not a feature of the app itself, rather a helper that
lives inside of the entire operating system.
This is a major move for two reasons.The first is that it really
brings Google back to a place of dominance as the glue that holds your digital
life together. The web has thrived and grown in no small part because of
Google's ability to track, organise and understand all of its disparate pieces.
Now it's able to do the same thing with every app running on your
phone. It allows Google to get back into the search game by speaking the common
language of apps. It gives the company a second life with access to user
behaviour and needs.
But secondly, it starts to show how Google can be an
interconnecting layer between the apps themselves -a kind of neutral staging
ground between one action and another. This is a sea-change for how we use our
mobile devices and how mobile apps interact with one another. Currently, we use
OS-defined tools which let apps interact with each other (with rules defined by
the OSmakers, not developers). But imagine if developers didn't have to think
about how their work connects to the rest of your world? Imagine if Now on Tap
is aware enough of the core functions of those apps that it can predict what
you'd most likely want to do with them, and then execute on those needs?
That's the ultimate promise of Now on Tap -and it's a game changing one.
That's the ultimate promise of Now on Tap -and it's a game changing one.
However, the technology has its limits. There's no chance a
service like this will ever make its way to Apple's iOS given the closed nature
of the operating system (and the fact that Apple will undoubtedly take a stab
at the same concept).
And Google also has to prove that this kind of natural language
processing can work effectively enough to live up to the company's promise of a
seamless experience.
But if the service is as impressive as what Google just showed off
on stage in San Francisco, there's a whole new world ahead of us for our
devices. One that's more connected than ever.
Google Introduces Photo Service
NEW DELHI: Google on Friday introduced Google Photos that will
allow users to backup and store unlimited high-quality photos and videos for
free. Google Photos -a standalone product that gives users a home for all their
photos and videos -is aimed at helping users to organise, share and save what
they think is important, the company revealed in a blog post. Google will
maintain the original resolution up to 16MP for photos and 1080p
high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and
videos in print-quality resolution.
Commenting on the launch, Anil Sabharwal, head of Google Photos,
said: “Photos and videos become littered across mobile devices, old computers,
hard drives and online services (which are constantly running out of space).
“With this launch we've made a lot of progress towards eliminating
many of the frustrations involved in storing, editing and sharing users'
memories,“ he added. IANS
|
Joshua Topolsky Bloomberg
|
ET30MAY15
No comments:
Post a Comment