news
07-15-2015, 04:37 PM
We're not quite at the point where you can simply imagine a product to have it billed to your credit card and shipped to your doorstep, but Google is bringing us a bit closer.
The company announced Wednesday (http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/15/purchases-on-google/) a new "Purchases on Google" feature, which will allow people to buy things directly from Google Search. If you look up something like "woman's hoodie," you might get a relevant ad from a retailer which you can interact with and purchase from -- without leaving Google's page. This will work with voice search, The Next Web reported (http://thenextweb.com/google/2015/07/15/purchase-on-google/), so you can ask Google out loud for a new colander (or whatever) and, with just a couple delicate taps of your thumb, have it shipped.
(Story continues below image.)
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/buyongoogle.gif
"Conversational search is also really important -- we’re seeing more shoppers literally asking Google to help them learn more about products. So we’re rolling out new experiences that answer them right back," Jonathan Alferness, vice president of product management at Google Shopping, wrote in a blog post (http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/07/winning-shopping-micro-moments.html).
Here's something to keep in mind if you plan to use voice search for shopping, though: Google has thus far stored voice data for features like Google Now, so if you're wearing an Android Wear smartwatch and ask it to "send a text to Sweetie saying 'I love you,'" that recording is sticking around on Google's servers. You can revisit these precious moments -- which may now include you asking Google things like "what's the best electric toothbrush?" -- in the "Voice and Audio Activity" panel in your privacy dashboard (https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard).
It should be noted, of course, that Google says the recordings are kept private, and you can delete them whenever. You can also disable this history function, though Google notes (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6030020?p=ws_now_audiohistory&hl=en&rd=1) the recordings will still "be stored using anonymous identifiers."
The new Purchases on Google feature will be tied to a user's Google account credentials. So, you won't have to type in your credit card number and send that information to specific merchants.
According to Alferness' post, the new feature is "in early experiments with a limited number of retailers." Moving forward, more may be included.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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The company announced Wednesday (http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/15/purchases-on-google/) a new "Purchases on Google" feature, which will allow people to buy things directly from Google Search. If you look up something like "woman's hoodie," you might get a relevant ad from a retailer which you can interact with and purchase from -- without leaving Google's page. This will work with voice search, The Next Web reported (http://thenextweb.com/google/2015/07/15/purchase-on-google/), so you can ask Google out loud for a new colander (or whatever) and, with just a couple delicate taps of your thumb, have it shipped.
(Story continues below image.)
http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/buyongoogle.gif
"Conversational search is also really important -- we’re seeing more shoppers literally asking Google to help them learn more about products. So we’re rolling out new experiences that answer them right back," Jonathan Alferness, vice president of product management at Google Shopping, wrote in a blog post (http://adwords.blogspot.com/2015/07/winning-shopping-micro-moments.html).
Here's something to keep in mind if you plan to use voice search for shopping, though: Google has thus far stored voice data for features like Google Now, so if you're wearing an Android Wear smartwatch and ask it to "send a text to Sweetie saying 'I love you,'" that recording is sticking around on Google's servers. You can revisit these precious moments -- which may now include you asking Google things like "what's the best electric toothbrush?" -- in the "Voice and Audio Activity" panel in your privacy dashboard (https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard).
It should be noted, of course, that Google says the recordings are kept private, and you can delete them whenever. You can also disable this history function, though Google notes (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6030020?p=ws_now_audiohistory&hl=en&rd=1) the recordings will still "be stored using anonymous identifiers."
The new Purchases on Google feature will be tied to a user's Google account credentials. So, you won't have to type in your credit card number and send that information to specific merchants.
According to Alferness' post, the new feature is "in early experiments with a limited number of retailers." Moving forward, more may be included.
-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234565600040/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/482625c7/sc/23/rc/1/rc.img (http://rc.feedsportal.com/r/234565600040/u/0/f/677045/c/35496/s/482625c7/sc/23/rc/1/rc.htm)
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