Google Search mobile app beefed up its functionality by allowing people to pull up information cards on car rental reservations or bookings.
Google announced the new functionality via its Twitter account on May 23.
“Now #GoogleSearch can help you remember your car rental bookings. Just ask “When is my rental car reservation?” the tweet says.
The tweet came with a photo of a Dollar Rent A Car card reservation using Nexus 5 smartphone, showing how the pull-up card and info would look like.
While some welcomed the new functionality, others were a bit apprehensive of the new development in the Search app expressing fear on how much more information Google can pull up from its end in the future. There were even speculations that the Internet company might have gathered such information from the user’s Gmail inbox through confirmation emails that were sent to the Gmail account connected.
Meanwhile, further researches suggest that Google is, indeed, already doing such pull-up cards with bookings on events, hotel, package delivery and OpenTable reservations. Now, if the user doesn’t have a Gmail account attached, research says Google will instead search through rental car services and other similar booking services.
Recall that many people criticized the Internet giant for scanning or reading through Gmail inboxes. The company clarified that content-scanning action was only intended for target advertising and nothing more, as it updated its Terms of Service (TOS) sometime in April.
"Our automated systems analyze your content (including emails) to provide you personally relevant product features, such as customized search results, tailored advertising, and spam and malware detection. This analysis occurs as the content is sent, received, and when it is stored," Google’s TOS states.
Another update to Google’s voice command was also applied. To previously set a reminder through Google Search, one has to physically be in contact or interact with the device. This has changed with the applied update on the current voice command, as Google Search can now listen and set reminders in between voice prompts. One can now program the reminders hands-free, which best suits people on the go or whose hands are always tied to something else.
Google is said to be continually updating or adding up new features to its Google Search app to function on smartphones, tablets, Chrome or Chromebooks, but the latest search functions are said to better sit on Android devices, and so far not yet available on iOS devices.
