Google Introduces A Handful of New Search Features and iOS App Update

Today is Google’s 15th birthday and the big G is in giving us a few presents to celebrate.  To start, Google is launching some new useful search features that make use of the company’s knowledge graph.  The example Google provides to show off its new knowledge graph integration is by performing the query, “tell me about impressionist artists” which would provide you with details in a search card, similar to the cards you see in Google Now.  I tried this feature just now and didn’t have much luck getting it to work just yet, so it could still be rolling out.  I personally want to try queries like, “tell me about US presidents.”

Another nifty feature Google is introducing is a comparison tool, so you can do things like “compare butter vs olive oil” or “compare cats vs dogs.”

Pretty neat, huh?

Google is now also including more information about things like bands in search results, so for example, a quick search of my favorite band, blink-182 brings up a list of popular songs from the band in addition to the traditional information about the band.

Google will also be rolling out a new-look version of its iOS search app. The new app version will put users directly in a Google Now interface that will feel familiar to Android users, and brings notifications, reminders to Apple users. Furthermore, the search app is now cross-platform, so if you add a reminder in iOS, it will show up on Android and vice versa.

The new search is powered by an update to Google’s underlying search technology called Page Rank.  The new update known as Hummingbird was made to better answer the complex questions that many people are asking Google these days — the update is actually already in place and is responsible for answering at least 90 percent of search queries.

Lastly, I wanted to share to this neat easter egg with you.  Being that today is Google’s 15th birthday, the company put together an easter egg that shows what the search engine looked like when it first launched.  Talk about things changing!