Topic: Android

Facebook Search Finally Lets You Search For Posts Again

More than a year after promising to give users the ability to search for posts, Facebook is finally coming through. The company today announced an update to Facebook Search that will make it possible to find that thread congratulating you on your new job, the hilarious comment you made about Walking Dead last month or […]

SearchCap: AdWords VP To Host Livestream, 2015 SEO Predictions & Google’s Santa Tracker Card

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords VP To Host Year-End Livestream, Promises “Announcement You Won’t Want To Miss” On Wednesday, December 10, Vice President of Product Management for AdWords, Jerry Dischler, will host a 30-minute livestream […]

Google’s Santa Tracker 2014 Is Up & Counting Days Until Santa’s Annual Sleigh Ride Around The Globe

Now that we have Thanksgiving out of the way, it’s time to start tracking Santa’s whereabouts. To make it easy, Google launched its Santa Tracker today, reminding us there are less than 23 days before Santa makes his annual trip around the globe. [pullquote]Santa’s dashboard – featuring the latest and greatest in Google Maps technology […]

Oh No They Didn’t: European Parliament Calls For Break Up Of Google

Today, many Americans were busy preparing Thanksgiving meals or getting ready to travel to the homes of friends and family to celebrate the holiday. But Google certainly won’t be giving thanks for the European Parliament’s vote in favor of a resolution to “unbundle” Google’s search engine from the rest of its business. The widely anticipated, non-binding vote calls upon […]

Yahoo Replaces Google As Default Search Provider in Firefox

Yahoo and Mozilla just announced a “strategic five-year partnership that makes Yahoo the default search experience for Firefox in the United States on mobile and desktop.” The companies said they will explore other potential “future product integrations and distribution opportunities to other markets.” Yahoo is thus going to displace Google the current Firefox search provider. […]

SearchCap: Google Serious On Mobile, Twitter Search Expands & AdWords Demographic Charts

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Is Experimenting With Special Ranking For Mobile-Friendly Sites Google already penalizes sites that provide a bad experience to mobile searchers. Now the company has confirmed that it’s testing with what […]

Google Rolls Out Search App Redesign For Android Lollipop Devices

Google announced today it is rolling out a redesign of its Search App for Android devices running on the Lollipop OS. Along with the “…bold colors, fluid animations and simplified layouts” of the new material design, Google says the updated app allows Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and Galaxy Note 4 users to set their device […]

App Extensions Coming To Bing Ads

App extensions will be available to advertisers on Bing Ads starting next spring. Timed to coincide with the removal of explicit mobile OS targeting, app extensions will be targeted automatically to a user’s OS and device. The extensions will feature an app’s icon and a call-to-action to download the app, as opposed to a click-to-download […]

Google Redesigns Maps, Adds OpenTable Reservations, Uber Estimates

Google continues to evolve its Maps for mobile. It has gone well beyond the rudimentary local search and navigation product it once was and become an increasingly sophisticated local discovery tool with an array of content types and improved functionality. Now Google has made Maps more “actionable” with OpenTable reservations and Uber pickup and price estimates built into the app. For […]

Walmart Brings Product Search To The In-Store Experience

Walmart has updated its Android app (and soon iOS app) to offer an improved in-store experience with search at the center. The new Walmart “Search My Store” feature offers a view into the future of in-store app usage. The combination of real-time online inventory and indoor location is making possible new types of in-store, digitally-enhanced experiences for shoppers. […]

Bing Adds New Crawlers To Support Non-Responsive Mobile Designs

Bing announced a new set of mobile crawlers with Bingbot Mobile User Agents to better support and recognize mobile websites that are not responsively designed. Lee Xiong from the Bing Crawl team explained Bing has designed these new crawlers to “probe websites with a number of new crawlers with the aim to give us the best […]

SearchCap: Matt Cutts Extends Leave, Google Day Of Dead Doodle & Local Black Friday Tips

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 2 Creative Ways To Promote Vital But Infrequently-Searched-For Events With PPC No search volume? No problem! Columnist Pauline Jakober provides helpful tips for campaigns focused on low search volume, high conversion […]

SEO

Nokia Makes HERE Maps Available To All Android Users

Nokia’s HERE Maps app, which had previously just been available for Samsung Galaxy Android phones is now available to all Android users. However it’s not in Google Play; users have to download it directly from the HERE site. In order to install the HERE app, you’ll need to go into settings –>security and enable installation of apps from […]

App Search Engine Quixey Annouces China Deal With Alibaba

App search engine Quixey has announced a relationship with Alibaba in China that will bring its search capabilities to the latter’s mobile operating system YunOS. Quixey enables users to search for content within apps — essentially what Google does for PC search Quixey is doing for apps. Quixey calls this “functional search.” It depends on […]

Teens Embrace Voice Search, Many Adults Feel “Like Geeks” Using It

According to a voice search study commissioned by Google, the most smartphone-obsessed teens are using voice search every day. However many adults feel self-conscious or embarrassed when they talk to their smartphones. The study found that 45 percent of US adults said they felt “like a geek” talking to their phones. (Yet this is what […]

SearchCap: AdWords Local Call Extensions, Google Change Of Address Tool & Local Ranking Factors

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google AdWords Debuts Local Forwarding Numbers For Call Extensions Advertisers using call forwarding numbers for their AdWords call extensions in the U.S. began receiving notices this week that local numbers are […]

Google Upgrades Conversational Search On Its Mobile Apps

Conversational search on Google’s mobile apps got an upgrade today, as the company announced a few new voice commands that are specific to travel planning. Basically, the app is smarter about knowing where you are (at a hotel, for example), letting you complete actions by voice (i.e., making reservations via OpenTable), getting directions as part […]

Nokia’s Here Maps Come To Android Phones (Sort Of)

Nokia’s Here Maps, which power maps on Windows Phones, has released a beta version for Samsung Galaxy Android phones. It’s not available through Google Play, though presumably it will be in time. Nokia’s hardware/handset division was sold to Microsoft but Nokia retained the Here mapping service. Now Microsoft is going to phase out the Nokia brand […]

Google Now Reminds You To Pay Your Bills

Google announced that you can now search Google for when your bills are due and in addition, Google Now will place reminder cards in your Google mobile app as a reminder as well. You can search or speak your search for [show me my bills] or [my bills due this week] and Google will show […]

Google Now Lets Travelers Know When Flight Prices Drop

Google is helping travelers save money with a new Now card that tells users when a price has dropped on a flight. According to this Google+ post, you can tap the card to display the Flight Search info and book your trip from there. It only works if you’ve searched Google Flights on the most […]

Cortana Coming To Windows 9, Will It Replace Bing?

Next week in San Francisco, Microsoft will unveil Windows 9 for the press. Among the features of the new OS is reportedly going to be the virtual assistant Cortana. A range of sites are repeating some early evidence found by a German site, and also a discussion on Neowin, that assert Cortana will be a central feature […]

Google Pushes Back Against EU Publisher PR Offensive

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt took to the Google Europe Blog this weekend to defend his company against a Europe-wide ad campaign that asserts Google has abused its dominant market position in search. It’s essentially a public appeal on the same terms being argued to the European Commission for why Google needs to be restrained. […]

EU-Google Antitrust Deal May Be Collapsing

Since the first Google antitrust settlement proposal was announced in 2013 the company’s rivals and critics have complained loudly that it doesn’t go far enough to remedy what they see as Google’s unjustified “diversion” of their traffic to Google’s own “vertical” properties. They’ve lobbied regulators and produced white papers and PR campaigns aimed at undoing […]

In-App Search: Great Idea, Not So Great Experience

Google, Facebook and others are trying to bring the world of internet-style “deep linking” to apps. Google is indexing in-app links from Android in a bid to keep search relevant in a mobile world now dominated by apps. Facebook recently touted gains that its open-source App Link program has made. Now an independent search app […]

SearchCap: Google Webmaster Tools & Guidelines Updates, Bing Ads Opportunities & DuckDuckGo Settings

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Webmaster Guidelines Update Calls “Low Quality Guest Blog Posts” Spam Google has updated their webmaster guidelines, specifically in the little or no original content guideline, to add “low-quality guest blog […]