With Google’s Updated Search App, The User’s Personalized Feed Becomes The Main Screen

Google has recently updated its mobile search app, and it has now allowed users to easily separate what things they are interested in, like news, entertainment, and sports, from the things they need in real life, like info on flights or appointment schedules. While the app has kept its familiar card style aesthetics, it now provides a couple of different sections that help people better organize information -- the user’s own personalized feed, and the “upcoming” section.

Users can access the upcoming section by clicking on the icon located on the bottom right part. Thereafter, they will be given information about the day’s appointments, travel information for those commuting, data on expected package deliveries, flight schedules, and other reminders. For those already using Google Now, these are the same types of information already being retrieved from Google’s other brands, which include Gmail, Google maps, and Calendar, just to name a few.

As for the news feed, it has now become the default feed, as opposed to the upcoming section. The news feed is also made more customized to the user’s interests in preferences. As the app’s main screen, the personalized feed offers info on sports updates, entertainment, music, and other news. Because news are separated from one’s appointments and reminders, users now won’t get lost as often in the jungle of information -- they can just go the upcoming section to be reminded of the day’s to dos, and then go back to the main screen to see the latest news.

The cool thing about the updated Google search app is that users are free to further customize their own feeds. Through the settings, they can set up which NBA team to monitor, or which stocks to get updates on.

But some may be wondering -- why place the news stuff on the main screen? Google’s objective here is to optimize the users’ interaction to personalized content. Simply put, the more people interact with the main screen, the more the feed gets better in picking the right stories and information to load on the main screen. As for searches, it is given that people generally search for stuff they care about, and the subjects you search for will also have a bearing on the info you get whenever you go to the main screen. For good measure, Google is also promising to further fine tune the feed programming better so that users themselves can help in customizing their personal feeds.