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Google and Samsung are holding my favorite new feature hostage
Why is Circle to Search still only available on a handful of phones?
At the Samsung launch event earlier this year, we didn’t just see the Galaxy S24 series. There was also a surprise Google announcement, showing off its new “Circle to Search” feature on the newly released phone lineup. Like the name implies, you can circle anything on your screen to search, but the feature has a few more neat tricks up its sleeve. Almost two months after Galaxy Unpacked 2024, this wonderful feature still hasn’t made it to more than three phone series. As it stands, Samsung and Google are holding my favorite new Android feature hostage.
Wild new Google Search buttons have appeared in beta for some
Google looks set to make its core app more colorful, but no, it’s not Material You
While the Google Search app still hasn’t been updated to follow Material You colors, introduced all the way back in Android 12, the company behind the search engine is busy with another interface update for its core app. As spotted by AssembleDebug, some beta testers currently see a new homepage design with a revamped search bar and colorful quick action buttons.
Protecting your digital privacy could be as simple as deleting your Google Search history. We Google almost everything and sometimes forget what should be kept private. Google stores all your search activities on your Google account, allowing you to quickly manage and delete them on your pocket-friendly Android phone and other devices. Whether you forgot to use Incognito mode or want to clear out old data, deleting your Google Search history is straightforward. We explain the process in this article.
Google Search just stole one of the Pixel's best calling features
Talk to a Live Representative is like Hold for Me, but directly in Search
In an age of robocalls and automated voice prompts, the Google Pixel series has a massively underrated set of features named Call Assist. This includes tools like Call Screen, which has a scary-good AI voice that can talk to unknown callers before ringing your phone, and one called Hold for Me that can listen to that awful hold muzak when you call a toll-free number and let you know when an actual human comes on the line. Now, it appears Google is making some of this functionality available to all users through the Google Search app.
How to turn off Google SafeSearch and other search filters
You may not want to see everything that pops up when you disable SafeSearch
The internet makes finding any information you need easy, but you may stumble upon explicit content. This content can lead to awkward situations at work or in public. Moreover, such content is unsuitable for children. That's where the search engine's built-in SafeSearch option comes in. It filters out potentially inappropriate content.
How to make Google your default search engine on any browser
How to set Google Search as the default search engine in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Opera browsers on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone
Google Search, or simply Google, is used by millions across the globe for search queries every day. It doesn't matter if you use Google Chrome or another web browser. Most of the time, Google is the search engine that is used. Whether you're looking for a new Android phone, how to travel with a minimal carbon footprint, or wondering what something looked like in the past, Google is your friend. For many years, Google has reigned as the most popular search engine with the most reliable results.
Circle to Search is great, but I'm not convinced it's the future of Google
Time is a flat... something-or-other
Of all the features announced during the Galaxy S24 launch event, Circle to Search seemed like one of the most promising. From Samsung's ads to Google's own announcements about bringing it to the Pixel 8 series, the search giant is hyping up Circle to Search as a revolutionary change to how we use our phones and interact with Search. For once, people I know in real life are genuinely excited to try it out, a rarity among new tech features. Can Circle to Search live up to expectations? It depends on how good your memory is.
Google Search's cached links used to be a handy way to access a website that was down or had revisions, and SEO professionals depended on them to track competitors' updates. But Google is now shutting down this tool. Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sulivan, confirmed that cached links are now part of Google's retired features and services.
Circle to Search might not come to your phone for over half a year
Galaxy S24 and Pixel 8 exclusivity likely won't end for months
The Samsung Galaxy S24 series launch event was an exciting one for Samsung fans, and the average Android enthusiast as well. That’s because the company announced new Gorilla Armor tech for screen protection, which should eventually make its way to devices from other brands. On the software front, Samsung’s event also gave us our first look at Circle to Search. While it is already available on the S24 and Google Pixel 8, people using other models may have a long wait ahead of them.
This year's Samsung Galaxy S24 series launched with new AI-powered features. The most interesting among them is Circle to Search, a flashy new search feature implemented in collaboration with Google and available first on Galaxy phones. Similar to Google's other visual search tools like Lens, Circle to Search gives more info about what's on your screen without much typing. You circle what you want to search for. Here's how to use it.
How to reverse image search on Google
Google reverse image search and Google Lens are available on Android, iPhone, iPad, and in a desktop browser so you can find it with a photo
Reverse image search helps you find the origin of a photo and similar photos. While plenty of services offer reverse image search, you don't need to go further than Google Search to find the origin of a photo. Combine it with advanced Google Search operators to quickly find all the information you need.
Gmail and Search are primed to help you shop this holiday season
Filter and track your stocking-stuffers with the help of Google's holiday shopping features
With the holiday season in full swing, many people are finding themselves opting for online purchases to complete their extensive gift lists, rather than the traditional last-minute crowded shopping mall hunt. Despite being incredibly convenient, online shopping comes with its fair share of challenges, even if sites like Gmail can help you track packages with ease. Even so, the process of finding a specific product and where to purchase it, timing up the delivery and, of course, the dreaded product return when you inevitably gamble on a last-second gift can make online shopping a bit of a hassle.
Google just made it even easier to use Spanish with Gboard
Gboard and Search now feature faster autocorrect and thousands of new words
Since Google released Gboard for Android as a substantial update to its existing virtual keyboard app in 2016, it's cemented itself as a premier option as far as keypads go. In its current form, Gboard features everything from built-in Google Translate, a predictive typing engine, Floating Keyboard, and even the ability to mash-up certain emojis.
Google should open Search to more crowdsourcing
With polarized viewpoints dominating social media and concerns about corporate influence on search results, it's clear a change is needed
All praise the algorithm; it's never wrong. However, after some scrutiny, it seems like Google search results are spitting out ads on top of increasingly irrelevant data, much of which users accept as the status quo. To address the decline in trusted search results, the search giant has released a new feature. It allows users to leave notes to annotate and critique search results, similar to the Community Notes that are now a regular feature on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Google constantly improves its search engine, and Google Search Labs is part of that effort. It's a place where exciting new AI features are tested. The most intriguing thing about Search Labs is that you can take part in the experiment.
Google is rolling out a dedicated Weather shortcut to Pixels
A new ‘Weather’ shortcut is showing up in many Pixels’ app drawers
Google recently published a brand-new weather app to the Play Store for Pixel phones, but you can’t directly access it. Instead, it’s meant as a hook for the Clock app to get weather data about your current location and any other time zones you have saved. Google is working on a separate solution for its user-facing weather service, though, which is part of the Google app. Some Pixel users report seeing a new shortcut for this Weather “app” on their Pixel Launcher.
10 advanced Google Search operators you need to know
Refine Google Search results with advanced search operators
Google is the global market leader when it comes to online search. It's how most of us use the internet. Even though a growing number of people use their awesome new smart speakers to search the web, they won't replace traditional keyboard-based searches anytime soon. Despite Google's universal familiarity, many people are unaware of some of its useful tricks to help you get the most out of your searches.
Google Discover gets new quick-search footer bars
Google is making it easier to jump into related search terms right from Discover
Google Discover gives you a constant stream of news, content recommendations, and videos that might be interesting to you based on your browsing history. The tool isn’t great for jumping into related topics these days, though, with you having the choice of either reading the specific article in question or just scroll on. It looks like Google is experimenting with a way to discover the broader topic surrounding an article again, something that was possible already a long time ago.
How to download images on Google
There are billions of images on Google. Here's how you can find and download the perfect one
Google Search is your best friend if you want to find and save images from the web. It can help you discover almost any picture you can think of, but you need to know how to use it well. It's relatively simple to download images from Google with advanced Google Search operators, but some valuable tips make this easier and safer.
All the best smartphones have been getting a lot bigger over the past decade, but some apps still put important interface elements at the top of the screen, making it harder to comfortably reach them. This is true for the Google Search app, which offers its primary interaction element, the search bar, at the top of the display. It looks like Google is experimenting with flipping this upside down, though.