Google is always looking at ways to integrate its many services and products to create a better experience for its users. The California based technology company revealed on October 10 that it was working on a new feature that would link up the company’s major search engine and its popular web based email service. According to Google, its search engine will be able to use the data found in the email account of a user to deliver more personalized search results.
With the new feature, when a user is on the search engine and types in Amazon, they will get their regular results along with any results from their Gmail account. They will either show up on the right hand side of the result or on top of the page. This type of search can be useful when users start using it to search for flights and restaurants. Any tickets or reservations in their emails will also show up making the search more robust and personalized.
Google’s latest move is part of a trend that has been going on recently at the search giant. The company is trying to make its search results more personalized and focused on the user to counter the effects of social networks. Social media has really taken off and Google is concerned that information online is being grouped around people now instead of keywords.
A major issue that Google will face with the integration of search results and Gmail is user privacy. Not everyone will appreciate Google searching their private emails and the company has tried to head off the debate by showing the email results in a collapsed format. The company has also made sure that email results will only show for users that take part in the pilot program voluntarily.
The Search giant is being careful at this point and does not want a repeat of 2010 when the company launched its Buzz service. Gmail users were shocked to find out their personal data was made public after it had been pulled from Gmail. The Federal Trade Commission stepped in and made a settlement to solve the problem and prevent future privacy breaches.
For now only one million Gmail subscribers who sign up for the pilot program will get the new search results. According to Google senior vice-president , Amit Singhal, once the company has gotten feedback from the trial users, general users will have the option to have their email search results show up alongside regular results. Singhal also said that Google would allow people to plugin other email services like Hotmail and Yahoo to show up in the results. With improved voice technology also coming from Google in the future, Singhal claims that, “The destiny of search is to become that perfect Star Trek computer.”
Source: CBC
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