Google being originally a search product still has at its very core a mission to make it easier for people to find things whether on the Internet or in real life. The latest updates to some of their apps and a recent acquisition still has that in mind. They have bought GIF platform Tenor to make it easier to find GIFs. They are also making it easier for you to see where else movies and TV shows are streaming other than Google Play Movies & TV. And they have added 39 new languages to Google Maps to help people find places using their own languages.
GIFs have become an essential way for some people to communicate online. When words aren’t enough to say what you’re really feeling, then you say it with animated pictures. So they have acquired GIF platform Tenor to help people find the right GIF for a specific moment or feeling. While it will still operate as a separate brand, they are incorporating its content library in the Google image search results but also for apps that use GIFs like Gboard, Allo, etc.
Meanwhile, when you search for movies or TV shows on Google Play Movies & TV, you will understandably find whether or not its streaming there. But now you can also see where else you can watch it, including the TV network streaming sites, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Now, etc (no Netflix as of now). You can also now narrow down your search for your next video to watch by tapping on the various genres or categories displayed in the search. You can also now thumbs up or down a video so the app can learn more what kind you like. And you can now save the things you do love on a watch list by long pressing it and adding it to the watchlist feature.
Lastly, Google Maps is adding support for 39 new languages on the navigation app. They are estimating a combined number of 1.25 billion who can speak these languages worldwide. Some of these languages are Afrikaans, Bosnian, Czech, Filipino, Hebrew, Malay, Persian, Swedish, and Vietnamese.
