Google has added a half dozen new travel and entertainment features to its personalised search app Google Now, aiming to capture the attention of the real-world consumer, such as a sports fan watching an NCAA football game, or the recently-landed tourist trying to find their rental card. Like Twitter, Google is drawing on a lot of evidence that indicates people are increasingly consuming entertainment — TV or otherwise — while tapping away on mobile devices to get more information and connect with other viewers.
Here’s a list of the new features:
- A car rentals card.
- Concert ticket card.
- Improved public transit cards.
- Commute sharing card.
- Set reminders while you search.
- Updated TV card.
- NCAA football scores.
Google Now pulls information from all of your services with the search engine giant, in a bid to provide relevant information depending on the time and location. As part of the new updates, for the traveller on-the-go there is a car rentals card, directing users to the rental centre and designed to complement the boarding pass and hotel reservation cards; the concert ticket card will bring up the ticket once the user arrives at the venue; and the commute sharing card informs your loved ones that you have just left work and are heading home.
The features are available on the Google Search app for Android 4.1+ but there is no word if the features will come to the recently launched iOS app, which is available via the Google search app but doesn’t feature the Boarding Pass, Activity Summary, Events, Zillow, Fandango, Concerts, and Nearby Events.
On the company’s blog post announcing the features, international users have complained about the lack of support from Google.
“Google now is very US centric. I wish Google concentrated more on providing local content on a global basis,” wrote Google+ user Kumarjit Sen.
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