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Google experiments with displaying a search box next to sites like Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Reuters. There's a button with the following label: "get quotes" and you're supposed to use this feature if you want to search for share prices.

For example, when you type [Google] or [GOOG], you're sent to the right page from Google Finance, Yahoo Finance and other financial sites. If you search for [computers], you'll get a search results page from the financial site. Is this the first time when Google shows a search box and doesn't return its own results?



I checked the source page and it says that it's a rich snippet, just like those that are used for reviews, music, events, products.

{ via Rubén }

Wearables are now the next big thing. A lot of companies develop smart watches, smart glasses and head-up displays, smart headphones, smart clothes. They all include low-power sensors that can obtain information about your health, your activities, the things you see.

Android 4.4 supports some new sensors for detecting and counting steps. These sensors are implemented in hardware and are only available on Nexus 5.

Google now works on a Fitness API for Android which will allow applications to view and edit fitness data. They can "view and edit your fitness tracking, health and activities data, including reading and writing raw and transformed data". This might allow Google to store data obtained from multiple sources to your Google account so that other applications can process it, show charts and other useful information.



It's not clear if this new API will be available in the next Android release or in Google Play Services.

{ Thanks, Florian. }

Google Now cards are available in the latest Chrome Canary build for Windows and Mac (34.0.1788). You only need to go to chrome://flags/#enable-google-now , then switch from "Default" to "Enabled" and click "Relaunch Now" at the bottom of the page to restart the browser. Chrome Canary and the stable Chrome can run at the same time, but the Canary version is updated daily, has the latest features and it's for developers and early adopters.


If you're signed into Chrome, you should see a Google Now notification and then a list of cards. "Google Now on your desktop! Stay connected to what you need to know, across all devices," informs the first card. Google Now cards are displayed using Chrome's notification interface in the Windows system tray or the Mac menu bar. Just look for the bell icon.



"If you use Google Now on your mobile device, you can see certain Now cards on your desktop computer if you're signed into Chrome, including weather, sports scores, commute traffic, and event reminders cards. Some of these cards may be based on the location of your mobile device. Google Now on Chrome shows a subset of the Now cards you see on your mobile device, which uses your device's location. You can edit your location settings (Location Reporting and Location History) on your Android or iOS device at any time," informs Google.


{ Thanks, Michael. }

Google's announcement that it will buy Nest was surprising. "Google has entered into an agreement to buy Nest Labs, Inc. for $3.2 billion in cash. Nest's mission is to reinvent unloved but important devices in the home such as thermostats and smoke alarms. Since its launch in 2011, the Nest Learning Thermostat has been a consistent best seller and the recently launched Protect (Smoke + CO Alarm) has had rave reviews."


Back in 2007, Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick, which completely transformed Google's ad business. Why pay $3.2 billion for a home automation company that designs beautiful objects? Maybe because it was founded by Tony Fadell, one of the people who designed the iPod, an iconic product that transformed a nearly-bankrupt Apple into a very successful company.

Google's 2013 was mostly about hardware. From Chromebook Pixel to HP Chromebook 11, from Nexus 5/7 to Chromecast, from Moto X to Glass, Google designs consumer hardware and it's just getting started. Many of these products bypass OEMs and use Google's brand. It's a major shift for Google and a superstar designer can make Google's products even better.

From Jon Wiley, Lead Designer for Google Search:

When Nest first made a thermostat, it seemed a lot of people said "wow, what a great thermostat company." And then they released a smoke alarm and the sense I got from many was "oh, Nest is a great thermostat and smoke alarm company."

But at the heart, Nest is obviously a great design company. Great design is about simplicity, utility, and beauty and Nest products have those qualities in abundance.

And so as Google works hard to bring great design to all of its products, it is very exciting to have the Nest team join Google.

Chrome's data compression feature is now available for all Android and iOS users. The latest releases of Chrome for Android and iOS add this feature, which was previously limited to Chrome Beta for Android and some randomly picked users.

"When enabled, Chrome's data compression and bandwidth management can reduce data usage by up to 50% while browsing the web on Chrome for Android and iOS. This feature also enables Chrome's Safe Browsing technology which helps protect you from malicious webpages," informs Google.


This feature uses a Google proxy to compress all the pages you visit, except for HTTPS pages and the sites you visit in Chrome's incognito mode.

"When the Data Compression Proxy feature is enabled, Chrome Mobile opens a connection between your phone and one of the optimization servers running in Google's datacenters and relays all non-encrypted HTTP requests over this connection. (...) The browser-to-proxy connection runs over SSL, meaning that your browsing session is encrypted between your device and Google's servers. The proxy also performs intelligent compression and minification of HTML, JavaScript and CSS resources, which removes unnecessary whitespace, comments, and other metadata which are not essential to render the page. These optimizations, combined with mandatory gzip compression for all resources, can result in substantial bandwidth savings," informs Google. DNS lookups are performed by the proxy, while the images are converted to WebP and the resulting images are up to 80% smaller.

Chrome for iOS also adds the page translation feature, which was previously limited to Chrome for Android and desktop, while Chrome for Android lets you add to the homescreen shortcuts to any page or web app.

As usually, "these updates will be rolling out over the next few days", so don't expect to get the latest version of Mobile Chrome right away.

This is not Chrome OS, it's a new Chrome interface that's only used in Windows 8 in the Metro mode (Modern UI). "Manage multiple Chrome windows and quickly get to your favorite Chrome Apps with an integrated app launcher. On the desktop, we've updated the default styling of UI elements like form controls and scrollbars to match the sleek design of the new Chrome Metro interface," informs Google.


Google ignored the Metro design language and decided to bring the Chrome OS interface to Windows 8. You'll get an app launcher, a shelf where you can pin your favorite apps, you can add new windows, move them, minimize them, maximize them, resize them and close them.

It's a great way to promote Chromebooks. You run Chrome in an immersive environment, as if it were the only application from your computer.

You can switch between the desktop mode and the Metro mode by clicking the menu and selecting "Relaunch Chrome on the desktop/in Windows 8 mode". Relaunching Chrome on the desktop didn't work well for me: only one of the windows was properly restored. "Chrome remembers the mode you last used. For example, if you exit Chrome from your desktop, you'll automatically be in desktop mode the next time you open Chrome," explains Google.

Chrome doesn't run in Windows 8 RT, but Windows for ARM isn't very popular.

This is no longer limited to Chrome Beta: the latest stable Chrome release lets you add supervised users. They're just like regular Chrome users, except that they're attached to your Google account and you can block sites and check their browsing activity from a Google page. This could be used as a parental control feature and it's more useful if you have a Chromebook.

"A supervised user is a special type of Chrome user who can browse the web with guidance. Under the supervision of the manager, a supervised user can browse the web and sign in to websites. Supervised users don't need a Google Account or an email address because the manager creates a profile for the supervised user through the manager's Google Account," informs Google.

When you add an user from the settings page, make sure to enable "this is a supervised user". You need to sign in to Chrome using a Google Account to use this feature. For Chromebooks, you have to sign out, click "add user" on the lower-left corner and "Create a supervised user".


You'll see this dialog and you'll get a confirmation email.



Chrome windows associated with the new profile have a "supervised user" label next to the icon. Supervised users can't enable Chrome Sync and can't install extensions or apps from the Chrome Web Store.


You can managed supervised users from this page: https://www.google.com/settings/chrome/manage (short URL: chrome.com/manage). Manage permissions, block domains, lock or unlock Google SafeSearch, check the browsing activity. SafeSearch is turned on by default and can't be disabled by the supervised user.



If the supervised user wants to visit a site that's blocked, he'll see this message and can click "Request permission". Chrome's dashboard page will show the requests and the manager can approve them.


"Supervised User Profiles" is a beta feature, even if it's now available in the stable Chrome releases.