Google Adds Feature for Local Search Across Devices

Google is working real hard to make sure you are logged into your Google account when you do anything with the company. Of course, that is the secret to Google getting as much data about you to use for advertising so it makes sense.

The latest entry into this is a service that allows desktop searches you conduct about local questions to be viewed on your mobile device when you are logged in and doing a search from Google.com. You will see a “Recent” tab that when used will give you the recent searches you did on another device so you don’t have to repeat the process while on the go. Here is a picture from the Inside Search blog with some visuals

The one catch in all of this is the need to be doing these searches from Google.com. I literally almost never do that from any device. On the laptop I search from the Chrome address bar. In Firefox, I search from the browser. On my Android device I use the search widget. All things that have been built for convenience (and in two of the cases by Google themselves!) that keep me away from Google.com.

That’s Google’s problem to solve. Meanwhile, it is very interesting to watch the continued quest to bring many years of apparently disparate and non-connected development efforts into a cohesive system across the many platforms that Google plays in. With hindsight being 20/20 it would be fascinating to think about how this might have looked if that vision was in place from the beginning but half of the stuff that Google is trying to integrate didn’t even exist when the company started.

Of course, now we might think “Well, now someone can come in and do it and become the new and improved Google!”. If only it were that easy.