May 22
May 12
May 02
Yesterday we reported that it was possible that Google Now might be draining the battery of your iOS device. Google Now for iOS was only released late last month for both iPhone and iPad, though its not available as a standalone app, rather it has been added to the Google Search app. Since Now provides information such as traffic, weather etc, it needs to know the location of the device. For this purpose, Location Services is kept running all the time. A number of apps that keep it running, tend to drain the battery life. Google has claimed in an official statement that this is not the case with Now.
In its statement the company acknowledges that there are apps which keep Location Services running and end up draining the battery, but that is because they require very accurate information. They say that Google Now is built very differently and that it uses Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers so as to have the minimum impact on battery life. Google says they extensively tested this service on iOS before release and did not find a significant impact on battery performance, so it expects that the users won’t too. Have you used Google Now on iOS and noticed your battery draining more than usual? Let us know by dropping a comment below.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Domino’s Now Lets You See How They Make Your Pizza, HTC Profits Dip 98% In Q1 2013, 
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May 01
The promotional video of Google Now for iOS allegedly leaked online back in March and it was quickly taken down. The video offered some assurance that Google will soon be releasing this app for iOS and indeed it did. Only a couple of days back, Google Now for iPhone and iPad was officially released though not as a standalone app, it is actually included in the Google Search app.
Google Now provides users with information such as traffic and weather. This requires Location Services to run constantly, which can have an effect on the battery life. Other apps mostly need Location Services when they need to pinpoint the user’s location, for example like checking in to a venue using Foursquare or even Facebook for that matter. Google Now’s constant use of this service can drain battery life, however the fix is very simple. Simply launch the Settings app and turn off Location Services for Google Search app when you’re not going to use Google Now. Turn it back on when using Now. Yes, its definitely cumbersome, but you never know when you’ll be in dire need of all the power your device’s battery can provide.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Bug’s Eye View Camera, Netflix Streamling Library Bids Farewell To Over 1700 Titles, 
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Apr 29
One of Android Jelly Bean’s best features, Google Now, is finally available on iOS as part of an update to the Google Search app.
Apr 16
Google is the most used search engine on the internet. For its plethora of users, speed is no doubt a necessity. Google prides itself on delivering quality results in a fraction of a section. It a bid to make their service more fast, Google today rolled out a couple of tweaks that would reduce the time users spending on searches conducted through their mobile.
In this update Google has rolled out expandable sitelinks, which are very effective in making the search experience faster. Users don’t have to spend time through dozens of pages of a website in order to find what they’re looking for. Expandable sitelinks allow users to quickly get access to the page they were searching for. This feature has been available in the desktop version for quite a while, now it has finally been brought over the mobile site. On some searches Google will also show a blue Quick view badge next to the results. Quick view will offer bits and pieces of information that is relevant to the search query. For now Quick view is only available for English language searches, but the internet search giant will be adding additional languages soon.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Netflix Ditching Microsoft Sliverlight For HTML5, Facebook Might Be Interested In Launching Video Ads In June/July, 
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Apr 03
It appears that iTunes Store links are missing from Google Search results and other links are being ranked higher than usual. This has been spotted by many users and the hype has turned the issue in to a conspiracy theory of sorts, as some have the idea that Google is purposefully excluding them from search. Google has now officially commented to this problem, saying that iTunes Store links are not being fetched due to technical issues.
Google says that it has been having issues fetching pages from iTunes web servers, this is resulting in links disappearing from search. It further states that they’re working with the team in order to ensure that users find what they’re searching for. Google drops the rank of pages that have duplicate content, it is possible that iTunes Store links are being dropped due to this reason. Rankings for various iTunes pages might have been split, causing the links to not rank on the first page, where a search user would normally expect to find them. Hopefully Google will be able to roll out a fix soon.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Launches Blink And Ends WebKit Affiliation With Apple, Google+ Now Supports Full Resolution Photo Uploads, 
Mar 16
Tamar Yehoshua has led Google’s efforts to optimize Search across platforms, devices and languages and earlier this afternoon she took to the Expand stage to discuss how the discovery process has changed. Following her talk, Brian Heater caught up with Tamar to chat about the evolution of search and the company’s focus on voice. Check out our video after break for the interview in its entirety.
Follow all of Engadget’s Expand coverage live from San Francisco right here!
Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google
Feb 28
If you’ve navigated your way to the majority of Google-owned properties like Gmail, Google Drive or just Google.com, then you’ve probably noticed the black navigation bar that is prominently displayed at the top of the page. Considering how visually appealing the majority of Google’s properties are, their black navigation bar has been an eyesore since it was introduced two years ago.
Google is reportedly testing a new version of its Google.com homepage that gets rid of the black navigation bar. The way users would navigate through Google’s services would be by clicking a grid icon. If the tests go well, Google plans to roll out the improved navigation to all users.
This isn’t the first time Google has attempted to ditch its black navigation bar as they moved its list of services into a drop-down menu that came down from the Google logo. The test method was scrapped six weeks later due to users finding the new design made it harder to find Google’s additional services.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Woman Allows Internet To Name Her Baby For $5,000, China Expanding 4M Broadband Coverage To 70% Internet Users,
Feb 11
Analyst Scott Devitt at Morgan Stanley estimates that Google pays $1B a year to Apple to be the default search engine in iOS devices. Given that iPhone and iPads are often estimated to make up for a large majority of mobile web traffic (we’re seeing close to 80% here on Ubergizmo), this is very important for Google to stay in, despite the current friction between Apple and Google, and despite the fact that late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs wanted to destroy Android at all cost. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iOS 6 Jailbreak Evasi0n Unlocks Nearly 7 Million Devices Within Four Days, Apple Mysteriously Hires AMOLED Expert From LG,
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