First of all, don’t get confused with the title! The title is : “Google Now to get access…” and not “Google now to get access…”
Now let’s get back to the topic. Back in January, Google announced through a blog post that Google Now (not “now”) will support Cards for third-party apps. But the support was for a mere 40 applications, which worked quite well anyway. Now that the ‘trial run’ was successful, they are going to extend the Google Cards support to any third-party application.
Google’s Director of Product Management, Aparna Chennapragada, mentioned that an open API is in the works. Speaking at SXSW, she talked about this new development which would enable any third party developer to feed information into Google Now from their apps. If implemented properly, this would be great for users who rely on Google Now for relevant information.
Google Now is probably the best virtual personal assistant, and there’s no denying the fact that it learns the user’s activities pretty quickly to bring appropriate Cards. If it comes to know that you are away from home, it will immediately show a card with the route towards your home and the time required for the travel. If there is a chance of rain in your area or at your workplace, it will notify you with a weather card filled with live temperature and other details. Besides these, it also gives information about sports, stocks and other things which you may be interested in.
When announcing the support for 40 applications, Google acknowledged the fact that most of the useful information relevant to the users lives inside the third-party applications on the phone. And that’s pretty obvious since that’s the reason why users install applications. Now (not Google Now. OK, sorry!) that more applications will be supported, there will be multiple Cards with the same information, but such duplicate information will be eliminated as Google Now will rely on individual app usage data, according to Chennapragada.
She added that over the next year or so, the team will primarily focus on tailoring search to individuals. She gave the example of flight information. While applicable to plenty of travelers, people have different preferences, such as how early they like to arrive at the airport and how long a layover they’ll tolerate. The programming challenge, she said, was applying Google Now’s analytical prowess to more personal circumstances.
Everything sounds great as of now, but there was no mention of a launch date, only hints and indications that it will launch in the coming months. We will wait, Google.
[follow id=”ashishmukundan” size=”large” count=”true” ]
Sameer