Inside Search
The official Google Search blog
Easily save the images you love...now on desktop
March 28, 2016
At the end of last year,
we announced
the ability to save images directly from Google’s image search in your mobile browser. Today, we’re making it easier to stay organized across more devices: now, you can save images to Google from your desktop.
For example, if your yard is in need of some spring re-planting, just go to your desktop, search for an image and tap the star to save your potential new flowers, bushes, or even swimming pools. When you’re at the store ready to start buying, you’ll be able to pull up your saved images on your phone and start building your perfect yard. You can also tag your saves to keep them organized.
This feature is currently available in the US when you search for images on desktop and in your mobile browser. To try it out, make sure you’re logged into your browser with your Google Account; then you can start image searching and saving.
We’re aiming to make what you search for and save more useful, so start saving to Google and let us know what you think about today’s update.
Post Content
Posted by Mark Colbert, Software Engineer
The campaign trail continues with Google
March 15, 2016
Learning about the candidates and their campaigns is an important part of preparing for the upcoming elections. We’ve already
added some Search features
that let you dive into important issues and track the primaries. Starting today, we're making it easier for you to find two additional types of information about candidates: how their campaigns are funded, and how they’re trending compared to one another.
Campaign finance information just a search away
Finding information on campaign funding can be difficult, if not seemingly impossible. Today, working with one of the most respected data sources in the industry,
the Center for Responsive Politics
, we’re making presidential campaign finance information easy to access and understand, right from Google Search. So when you search for
donald trump
or
clinton campaign finance
, you’ll see a snapshot of their campaigns’ finance breakdown and be able to dig into interesting insights, like the percentage of funds coming from SuperPACs versus individual donations, or which industries have donated the most to a given candidate.
Who’s trending?
We’re also taking candidate
search trends
information and making it available directly in search. So when you search for a given candidate you can see how others have searched for them and their opponents over time.
Finding unbiased, objective election information isn’t an easy task. Today's update is the latest in our efforts to help users get the information they need to become informed about the elections and our candidates.
Posted by Jacob Schonberg and Payal Patel, Product Managers
Get front row seats to the ICC World T20 2016 with the Google app
March 8, 2016
Sometimes life can get in the way of what you love most. There are meetings to attend, groceries to shop for, sleep to be had — all things that take time away from what really matters: cricket. Being away from the action can be frustrating, but from today you’ll never have to miss another moment, with the launch of new cricket experiences on the Google app just in time for the
ICC World T20 2016
.
Ever wanted to know the
connection between cricket and a
jalebi
? What the score is mid-match? Or when India plays next?
With the Google app on your Android or iOS phone, yo
u
now have
instant answers to your all cricket questions
. S
core updates and
match schedules in English and Hindi give you a front row
seat to all the games.
And if you search for things like “Cricket score” or “T20 score” at any point during the game, scores will automatically update — no page refreshes needed.
Once you select the game you’re interested in you’ll be taken through to a new Search experience which shows you news articles related to the games, teams and players you’re interested in as well as detailed score boxes with in-depth game stats.
And just as you’d ask a cricket fan what the score is, or when the next game is, you can also speak to the Google app. If you say “Ok Google, when is the next cricket match?” it will show you the schedule of upcoming games. Or if you ask “When will India play New Zealand?” it will tell you the date and time. The only thing the Google app can’t tell you is who will win. You’ll have to wait a couple of seconds after the match for that.
This is just the first of a range of Cricket
Search experiences Google will be bringing you over the coming weeks. Stay tuned for curated content from well known cricket commentators, players and personalities.
Posted by Yoav Schwartzberg, Product Manager, Google Search
From Amharic to Xhosa, introducing Translate in 13 new languages -- now over 100 in total!
February 17, 2016
In 2006, we started with machine learning-based translations between English and Arabic, Chinese and Russian. Almost 10 years later, with today’s update, we now offer
103 languages
that cover 99% of the online population.
The 13 new languages — Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Sindhi, Pashto and Xhosa — help bring a combined 120 million new people to the billions who can already communicate with Translate all over the world.
So what goes into adding a new language? Beyond the basic criteria that it must be a written language, we also need a significant amount of translations in the new language to be available on the web. From there, we use a combination of machine learning,
licensed content
and
Translate Community
.
As we scan the Web for billions of already translated texts, we use machine learning to identify statistical patterns at enormous scale, so our machines can "learn" the language. But, as already existing documents can’t cover the breadth of a language, we also rely on people like you in Translate Community to help improve current Google Translate languages and add new ones, like Frisian and Kyrgyz. So far, over 3 million people have contributed approximately 200 million translated words.
Before you dive into translating, here are a few fun facts about the new languages:
Amharic (Ethiopia) is the second most widely spoken Semitic language after Arabic
Corsican (Island of Corsica, France) is closely related to Italian and was Napoleon's first language
Frisian (Netherlands and Germany) is the native language of over half the inhabitants of the Friesland province of the Netherlands
Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan) is the language of the Epic of Manas, which is 20x longer than the Iliad and the Odyssey put together
Hawaiian (Hawaii) has lent several words to the English language, such as ukulele and wiki
Kurdish (Kurmanji) (Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria) is written with Latin letters while the others two varieties of Kurdish are written with Arabic script
Luxembourgish (Luxembourg) completes the list of official EU languages Translate covers
Samoan (Samoa and American Samoa) is written using only 14 letters
Scots Gaelic (Scottish highlands, UK) was introduced by Irish settlers in the 4th century AD
Shona (Zimbabwe) is the most widely spoken of the hundreds of languages in the Bantu family
Sindhi (Pakistan and India) was the native language of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "Father of the Nation” of Pakistan
Pashto (Afghanistan and Pakistan) is written in Perso-Arabic script with an additional 12 letters, for a total of 44
Xhosa (South Africa) is the second most common native language in the country after Afrikaans and features three kinds of clicks, represented by the letters x, q and c
We’ve come a long way with over 100 languages, but we aren’t done yet. If you want to help, International Mother Language day — just around the corner on February 21 — is a great time to get involved in
Translate Community
. To start, just select the languages you speak; then choose to either translate phrases on your own or validate existing translations. Every contribution helps improve the quality of translation over time. You can also share feedback directly from
Translate.Google.com
, so as you try out the new languages, we’d love to hear your suggestions.
For each new language, we make our translations better over time, both by improving our algorithms and systems and by learning from your translations with Translate Community. Today's update will be rolling out over the coming days.
No matter what language you speak, we hope today’s update makes it easier to communicate with millions of new friends and break language barriers one conversation at a time.
Posted by Sveta Kelman, Senior Program Manager, Google Translate
On the road to the 2016 elections with Google Search
February 1, 2016
As the 2016 primary season officially kicks off with voters across Iowa caucusing for candidates, we’re making a few updates to Google Search to help you stay informed about the elections. Starting today, you can see where candidates stand on key policy issues, follow the nomination races with live results and an ongoing tallying of the delegate counts, and get voting reminders and live result updates in Google Now.
Dive into the issues
To help you learn where candidates stand on the issues that matter to you, you can now find candidate statements on important topics—such as national security, taxes, and immigration—right in search results. In addition to seeing direct statements from the candidates—if they choose to share them—you’ll also see a variety of candidate quotes aggregated from news articles. So now, if you search for a specific candidate (“
Ted Cruz
”) or a specific candidate and issue topic (“
Hillary Clinton economic policies
”) you’ll see statements and quotes from the candidate.
Follow the results
Tracking what’s happening in the primaries and how each candidate is doing state-by-state can be hard. So now when you search for “
primary results
” or “
resultados de la elección primaria
” you’ll not only see the primary election schedule, but you’ll also see live results and an evolving tally of how many delegates each Republican and Democratic nominee has received. This feature works in English and Spanish.
Remember the important things (like voting!)
Google Now cards will keep you up-to-date on the latest elections news. In the Google app, you’ll get cards reminding you to vote in your local primary and others highlighting who won each contest. As with the election results, this works in English and Spanish.
We hope these features make it easier for you to keep up to date on the issues, the delegates and your local primary.
Posted by Jacob Schonberg, Product Manager
Prepare for the next storm with a new weather experience on Android
January 21, 2016
An unexpected snow or rainstorm can put a bit of a damper on your day, so to help keep you dry and ready to take on any weather, we’re introducing an upgraded weather experience on Android phones.
Now when you search for “weather” or ask Google, “will it rain today?” in the Google app on your Android phone, you’ll get a wealth of new information, including: hourly sky conditions and chance of rain, severe weather alerts, a detailed 10-day forecast, air quality, UV index, sunrise and sunset times, and more.
When you tap on the weather result, you can also save your favorite locations by searching for a new location and selecting “Add.” You’ll start seeing your chosen locations in the drop-down in search.
We also have a new design so you can see at a glance what the day has in store with changing background colors that respond to the sky conditions and a new meteorologically inclined friend.
So whether you’re facing a blizzard in Boston, rain in London or unseasonably cold weather in Sydney, you’ll be better prepared to take on the day with Google.
Posted by Lea Stolowicz, Product Manager
Make your holidays a little easier with Now on Tap
December 15, 2015
Between gift shopping, traveling, and party-going and party-hosting, there’s a lot to do this time of year. With Now on Tap on Android phones, everything is a little bit easier. Today we’re making some updates to Now on Tap to help you out during the holiday season and year round.
On airport pick-up duty? If your cousin sends you a text with his flight number, simply tap and hold your phone’s home button to get info on flight status without a separate search. Your text message is still right there, so you can respond easily after a quick peek.
If you need make sure all the last-minute gifts you ordered online will make it under the tree on time, tapping and holding on your confirmation email will display tracking info for your package.
And just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean the news slows down (well, maybe a little). When reading a news article about Justin Trudeau or Ronda Rousey, tap and hold to get links to related articles so you can learn more. Plus, you’ll now see a share icon when you use Now on Tap to easily share what’s on your screen, without having to leave what you’re doing. You should start seeing all these features over the coming days.
Finally, for those of you French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or Korean speakers—Now on Tap is now at your fingertips too. Of course, we’ll continue to add more languages and features soon.
Posted by Aneto Okonkwo, Product Manager
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