Google’s homepage has seen a few slight changes over the years, but the search box has remained almost completely unchanged since 1998.
Although there is no indication that this box is going to be removed at any point in the near future, the company has just announced that it will be pushing through several major changes that will make the mobile version of Google much more user-friendly.
When you consider how the Google app currently works on a smartphone, it is easy to understand why it is in need of an upgrade. After all, clicking into a small box to type a search string is not intuitive on a small iPhone, and this has led many people to ask Siri questions instead.
Siri has been defaulting to Bing search results since 2013, so this is not a positive change for Google. Unsurprisingly, the man who created Google’s algorithms has a new plan that will make it much easier to search the web from a mobile device in the future.
According to BBC News, Amit Singhal, who serves as Google’s search chief, is looking to the future and pushing forward with a new type of search engine technology known as Now on Tap. Instead of heading to the Google app and typing in a search request, smartphone users will soon be able to tap their home button to be given the opportunity to receive answers to contextual questions.
To make this work, Google will be scanning the text of whatever page or app the individual is using to predict what type of information they might want to know next. In other words, if you are watching a music video via the YouTube app, Google will be prepared to answer questions such as “Who is the drummer of this band?”
Now on Tap will be rolled out soon to Android devices with the Marshmallow update, and it is expected to be available October 5 for Nexus devices. This sounds like a great news that will make life easier for smartphone users, but Apple’s chief Tim Cook has brought up some interesting points that may make you leery of Google’s latest innovation.
In order to receive the most from Now on Tap, it is necessary to allow Google to collect data about your search history. Some people will undoubtedly see this as an invasion of their privacy, and Cook is one of them. The Guardian reports that earlier this year, Cook unleashed a tirade against the business practices of Google and Facebook for continuously collecting user data with the intention of monetizing it.
It is clear that Google does utilize user data to tailor advertising their advertising, but this information can also help people get more accurate search engine results. With this in mind, is the trade off in reduced privacy worth the increased convenience factor?
It is difficult to decide whether or not all of Google’s changes should be fully embraced by the general public, even though the company has a history of trying to live up to one simple motto: Don’t be evil. On the one hand, Google is in the process of developing several pieces of technology that can clearly benefit the world, including free WiFi in variety of different locations and the driver-less car.
At the same time, if the search engine giant was to ever suffer from a massive data breach, almost every Internet user could suffer immeasurably from all of the personal information that would be exposed.
Ultimately, the allure of easier, faster smartphone searches is very tempting, and it will most likely win out over the privacy concerns of most people. If you agree with Cook that all of this data collection is going way too far, you may just want to remove the Google app from your phone and look things up the old-fashioned way through Google’s web version or a different search engine.
