Google is working on building a new kind of mobile search tool, one which pre-guesses what you’re likely to be looking for and pings you a little update before you ask. Sort of like a clairvoyant butler arriving with a bacon sandwich when you need it most.
According to Technology Review, the new concept is to understand the hidden needs of its users by sampling a test audience as they go about their every day lives.
Results at this early stage would appear to be based around hyper-local knowledge, like telling you how many people are queuing up to buy their sandwiches at the local supermarket, with Google also using contextual information from GPS devices to use your location to help answer questions you may be pondering but that aren’t quite important enough to actually bother getting your phone out and looking up.
We suspect these pre-search messages may well come laden with adverts for local pizza retailers, with Google basically hoping to add us all to the world’s largest bulk email distribution list. But you never know. Not everything it does is about tricking people into clicking adverts for tooth whitening products. [Technology Review via BGR]
Image: AP
Our newest offspring Gizmodo UK is gobbling up the news in a different timezone, so check them out if you need another Giz fix. [clear]