Google plans of bringing a new Android feature, which is under tests currently. This feature will make it possible for the Android users to install apps directly from the search engine results rather than routing via Play Store, reported Android Police.
Help keep search engine relevant
Just like the Play Store, this feature too brings up a small permissions window and install button, but it appears to work for few users only, and that too when searching through the Google app and not through the Chrome browser. It is not known for now whether the feature will become widespread and usable through mobile browsers such as Chrome and Safari. There has been no comment from the Internet company over the report.
When a user searches for an app, the top results with an ‘install’ button will carry this feature. The company has discussed the feature intermittently for a month or so, but it is reaching a wider Android user base now, according to Android Police.
In case, it becomes available only for the Android owners, even then it will have the potential of bolstering Google’s efforts to keep its search engine relevant in a world dominated by mobile apps. This is so, because the company will definitely want its mobile users to spend maximum time using Google even if it is for installing an app it hasn’t made.
For quite some time now, Google has been displaying links to the Play Store on Android and to the iOS App Store on mobile Safari for the iPhone users. However, this move from the Internet firm will mark the first time users can download and install an app without visiting a mobile storefront.
Google – a trusted news source
Separately, for the second year in a row, Google has been trusted by more people, when it comes to news, than the news outlets whose articles are aggregated on Google. Edelman, a US public relations firm conducted a survey covering 33,000 people across 28 countries, and 63% of them said they trust ‘search engines’ for news and information while 53% favored the online-only media.
Edelman’s findings are not exactly encouraging to the journalism industry. The results suggest that the headline users read in Google’s news aggregator generate higher trust over the same headline on its original website.