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Google rolls out new features across Maps, Search and Shopping • ZebethMedia

Google announced today that it’s introducing a slew of new Maps, Search and Shopping features. The company revealed majority of the new features during its Search On event in September and is now starting to roll them out to users. Search Starting today, users will be able to use Search to find their favorite dish at a restaurant near them. For example, you can search “truffle mac and cheese near me” to see which nearby restaurants carry the dish on their menu. Once you find a specific dish that you’re looking for, you can get more information about its price, ingredients and more. Another new Search functionality lets you use Google’s multisearch feature to find specific food near you. Say you see something tasty looking online, but don’t know what it is or where to find it. You can now use Lens in the Google app for Android or iOS to snap a picture or take a screenshot of a dish and add the words “near me” to find a place that sells it nearby. Image Credits: Google Later this year, Google is going roll out an update to its Lens AR Translate capabilities so users can more seamlessly translate text on complex backgrounds. Instead of covering up the original text like it currently does, Google is going to erase the text and re-create the pixels underneath with an AI-generated background, and then overlay the translated text on top of the image. Maps As for the new Maps features, Google is launching a new visual search experience called Live View in London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo. “Say you’re visiting New York with plans to knock out your holiday shopping and catch up with friends,” Google says in a blog post. “Lift your phone and tap on the camera icon in the search bar to see nearby stores and other places like coffee shops, banks and ATMs. With AR-powered directions and arrows, you can see what direction they’re in and how far away they are — and even spot places that aren’t in your immediate view (like a clothing store around the block) to get a true sense of the neighborhood at a glance.” If you want to find other places, you can tap on categories to explore what restaurants, bars, dessert shops, parks and transit stations are nearby. In addition to displaying information about where places are, users will be able to see key information about each spot overlaid, such as whether the location is busy, if its open, what the price range is, etc. Image Credits: Google Another new Maps feature makes it easier for EV owners to find the best charging station for their vehicle. Now, you can search for “EV charging stations” and select the “fast charge” filter. You can also filter for stations that offer your EV’s plug type. Google also announced that it’s expanding its “accessible places” feature globally after initially launching it in the U.S., Australia, Japan and the U.K. in 2020. The feature is designed to help people determine whether a place is wheelchair accessible. You can turn on the “accessible places” setting in the app, after which you will start to see a wheelchair icon on places that are wheelchair accessible. You’ll be able to see if a place has accessible seating, restrooms and parking. Google notes that the feature can also be helpful if you want to avoid stairs because you have a stroller or are using a cart. Shopping Google has announced a new AR shopping feature that is designed to make it easier to find your exact foundation match. The company says its new photo library features 148 models representing a diverse spectrum of skin tones, ages, genders, face shapes, ethnicities and skin types. As a result, it should be easier for shoppers to better visualize what different products will look like on them. Image Credits: Google “Here’s how it works: Search for a foundation shade on Google across a range of prices and brands, like ‘Armani Luminous Silk Foundation’,” Google explained in a blog post. “You’ll see what that foundation looks like on models with a similar skin tone, including before and after shots, to help you decide which one works best for you. Once you’ve found one you like, just select a retailer to buy.” Users can now also shop for shoes using AR. You can start exploring shoes from brands like Saucony, VANS and Merrell starting today. The feature will be compatible with more brands in the future, Google says. You can start by searching for a sneaker type, such as “Shop blue VANS sneakers” and tap “View in my space.” Then, you’ll be able to spin, zoom and see the shoes in your space to make it easier to see if you like the color, laces, tread, etc.

Google Search is getting new shopping features to help you get a better deal • ZebethMedia

Google is rolling out new shopping features that are designed to help you get a better deal on products directly from Search. The search giant is making it easier to find promos and coupons by introducing a new promotion badge in Search that will be displayed when a coupon is available for a specific product. For example, you may see a label that says “15% off with coupon code HOLIDAYS.” The company notes that although it already shows when items are on sale or if the price for a specific product has dropped, the goal of this new feature is to show users specific promotions and allow them to compare them to others right in Search. Image Credits: Google Google is also adding a new coupon clipping feature that allows you to copy promo codes when you’re ready to make a purchase. These two new features will roll out in the coming weeks, Google says. The company is also launching a new feature that lets you compare deals side by side. For example, if you search for a women’s puffer jacket, Search will show you a side-by-side comparison of available puffer jackets on sale. The new feature will roll out in the U.S. this month. In addition, Google is bringing its price insights feature, which is currently available in the Shopping tab, to Search to help shoppers understand the prices they see and make better buying decisions. Now, users will be able to quickly see how one brand’s price compares to others’ and whether it’s low, typical or high for specific products. Google’s decision to bring features from its Shopping tab over to Search results is a welcome one, especially for people who don’t want to click over to another tab and would prefer to look for products directly through Search. Image Credits: Google The launch of the new features comes as Google says 43% of Americans are planning to look for deals and sales more than last year this holiday shopping season, which isn’t exactly surprising, due to inflation and a potential recession. At its Search On event a few weeks ago, Google announced a slew of new shopping-related changes and new features across areas that include visual shopping, personalization and buying with the help of trusted reviews. One of the biggest changes coming to Google Shopping is the addition of opt-in personalization, arriving in the U.S. later this year. With this, consumers will be able to tap buttons to direct Google to remember the types of categories they want to shop, such as “Women’s Department” instead of the “Men’s Department.” Users will also be able to choose favorite brands to ensure those are highlighted in their future Google Shopping search results.

Google is updating its ‘Ad’ tag to ‘Sponsored’ for mobile search • ZebethMedia

Over the years, Google has made it harder to separate ads from organic search results at a glance. In its current iteration, when users perform a search, the only distinction between the two is “Ad” written in bold — and it’s easy to miss. The search giant is making a small change to that today by replacing the “Ad” label with the “Sponsored” label in bold next to the advertisements appearing in search results. The company is also moving the label above the site URL in a separate line, instead of showing it next to the URL. Currently, Google is slowly rolling out this update across mobile and said it will start testing these changes on the desktop without specifying a date.   Old ad format Image Credits: ZebethMedia New ad format with the ‘Sponsored’ tag Image Credits: ZebethMedia “This new label and its prominent position continues to meet our high standards for being distinguishable from search results and builds on our existing efforts to make information about paid content clear,” Google said in a statement. But these changes still might not be enough for users to clearly separate ads and organic search results. If you’re reading this story and looking at the changes side-by-side, you would notice a difference between “Ad” and “Sponsered.”  But in daily usage when you’re scrolling through thousands of search results, you may not have these modifications in mind. Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Product Liaison, has tweeted the visual history of the company’s ad labeling many times over the years. While the tweet below captures changes only till 2019, it’s easy to see how Google has slowly blurred the lines between ads and search results. When Google rolled out the new bold “Ad” label in 2020, many folks pointed out dark patterns in this design change that made users squint to separate out paid content. But it took the company two years to make any kind of change. The ad business is the main money maker for Google: the company earned $56.3 billion in ad revenue in Q2 2022. So it’s important for the search giant to keep churning out money from that funnel in different ways. Given the position Google holds in the ads space many watchdogs are looking to probe the company’s ads business through an antitrust lens. Including website names Along with changing the ad labels, Google will also display site names in search results. Until now, you could only see URLs in the search results making it confusing to identify some sites. Plus, it is making website favicons more prominent so users can easily recognize familiar site logos. The company said it will also extend these changes to ads to increase transparency for users. Image Credits: Google

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