Starting Wednesday, you may no longer need to download apps on your smartphones. That’s Google’s latest trick up its sleeve. So how are we going to search for hotel accommodations, you may ask. Or know what today’s weather will be like? Or book a restaurant?
Smartphone users download apps to get the information they need. For example, there’s HotelTonight which can book you a hotel room, Gormey can find you a restaurant or My Horoscope can give you your daily astrological prediction.
When a smartphone user has a need in mind, the usual process would be to search for an appropriate app by checking feedback and reviews before finally downloading. The app helps the user find what he is looking for, such the best place to stay or which route to take on a trip to New York. Google recognizes the time lost on such a process and promises to do away with all that.
With Google, you can use an app without having to download it. This time, after keying in some words for your search, Google will not only give the usual search results but will “open up” the right app for you even if it’s not in your smartphone.
But how is this done? Google has been able to take hold the technology to make this happen from a new company called Agawi. Using this technology, Google does its magic by streaming a video of the app to your phone. Although the app is not actually in your phone, you are given control, to scroll and to tap, as though you have it in your phone.
This is a remarkable development that will eliminate to usual time- and space-consuming process one usually has to perform. Google is working hard to making searches for efficient. Even hard to reach information can now be accessed through what is called “deep linking.”
This latest development is certainly an ingenious move by Google to shake the stronghold of smartphone apps on smartphone users. As Google engineer, Rajan Patel said: “We feel like it’s our role to make sure we have answers. In mobile, oftentimes that’s in apps.”
But for now only Hotel Tonight, Weather, New York Subway, My Horoscope, Daily Horoscope, Visual Anatomy Free, Useful Knots, Gormey and Chimani can be streamed by Google.
