2013 has seen a lot of changes from Google in terms of their search algorithm and their place in the smartphone market, so what can we expect from Google in 2014?
Googles KitKat and App Indexing
Google’s latest version of mobile operating system Android will be named KitKat and boasts many new features, one of which is App indexing. App indexing is a way to deep link to the contents of an app from within a user’s Google search results.
A way this will work would be for Google to bring up search results for relevant queries for a topic, and if there is an appropriate app relevant to the search query, you will have the option to open the app containing the data. It will be interesting to see how businesses and services utilise this new functionality in 2014.
Possible Google Glass release?
We recently produced a blog about the impact of Google Glass on SEO and software services. After all the hype generated by Google Glass in 2013, it seems quite disappointing to still not see a real release of the device. Throughout 2013 we have heard about features being pulled, replaced and reworked to improve usability and functionality. New features have also been added to improve the overall experience so hopefully we will find out soon enough if it has been worth the wait.
A more refined, improved voice search
Google has offered voice search for some time now, but still fails to be as well integrated and widely used as Apple’s Siri. As Apple continue to improve and add features to Siri and the battle between the tech giants intensifies for marketplace dominance, Google will have to introduce a well-made integrated voice solution to its operating system that can compete. From what has been recently said, the voice search in KitKat is up to 20% more accurate than previous versions of its voice search and is said to be ‘smarter’ than Apple’s Siri. Will 2014 be the year of searching by voice rather than text?
YouTube improvements
After the YouTube community have voiced their disapproval of the huge problem with content ID matches making monetisation for content creators a living hell as well as a half-hearted Google Plus integration to YouTube comments, will 2014 be the redeeming year for Google’s YouTube? There are talks of a YouTube competitor that will be emerging soon enough, based on the YouTube community not being able to work effectively due to these recent changes.
It’s not too unrealistic to expect more 4k videos and streaming options available via YouTube in 2014 as more smart TVs become 4K compatible and bandwidth improves worldwide. Whether or not YouTube will make it any easier for content creators to do their job remains to be seen.
2013 has seen Google make more mistakes than anything else with their decisions and direction with their services. One example of this would be the above mentioned Google Plus integration and huge content ID issues resulting in thousands of content creators with videos automatically removed from monetisation.
Hopefully in 2014 we will see Google learning from these mistakes and understanding what the community are asking for, although I really can’t imagine Google Plus going anywhere anytime soon.
Image credit – Gayle Laakmann
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