The Google Android app is currently being updated with a new Feed feature that will provide users with a personalized stream of news and updates on topics they care about, the Mountain View, California-based Internet giant announced on Monday. The functionality is a significantly upgraded version of a similar feature that the company debuted last December and the latest update completely removes any Google Now branding from the app. Much like many other personalized offerings from Google, the Feed will automatically adjust to your preferences and search history with the goal of becoming the ultimate mobile tool for staying in the loop about anything and everything.
The artificial intelligence (AI) solutions powering the new feed are significantly more advanced than those that served as the backbone of the original feature, Google claims, adding that the new service is now not only curating content based on your previous searches and interests but is also trying to determine your level of interest in possibly unrelated local and global news. Whenever the feature presents you with a topic that you aren’t interested in, you can unsubscribe from it in a few taps, consequently helping the Feed learn more about your preferences and do a better job of providing you with interesting content in the future, Google says.
The introduction of the new Feed to the Google app marks a significant step for the Alphabet-owned company that was so far primarily interested in adapting its offerings to perform in the way users expect them to when requested. The firm’s flagship Search service is the best example of that product strategy as it’s designed to provide users with specific answers to a broad range of topics, though it’s still reactive in nature. Unlike Search, the new Feed found in the Google app takes a proactive approach to serving Google’s users, trying to predict which news they might be interested in and looking to list those items before they’re searched for. Unlike the original version of the service, the redesigned Feed also isn’t exclusively interested in the latest content and may even present you with some older articles and videos if it thinks you’d be interested in them and have missed them when they were originally published. As such, the platform is mainly looking to compete with social networks like Facebook and Twitter that many users turn to for their daily influx of news and interesting content, though it remains to be seen how the average consumer will respond to it.