For some time now, Google has allowed us to find relevant information for us through cards that include all kinds of data: news that has to do with our interests, weather information, traffic data … the string of information is, practically endless. To access them, just click on the G icon that we will see on any Android phone for example and we will have everything displayed before our eyes for our consumption, enjoyment or horror. What you see is one of those projects that the Mountain View company is developing without making much noise but that end up being part of the daily life of users and that is none other than Google Discover. In this article we will try to explain as precisely as possible what this service is and what its specific use is.
What is Google Discover?
To talk about what Google Discover is, you have to go back a few years in time. Veteran Android users will surely remember a feature that the Great G offered in our terminals called Google Feed, which was responsible for delivering relevant information to us in the form of cards.
To offer us these cards it was based on different sources: your searches in the Google application (present in all Android phones; its most famous manifestation is the widget in the form of a home screen search bar), your web browsing history, and even some keywords picked up by the phone’s microphone.
Google Feed has mutated into a functionality driven in part by an artificial intelligence developed by the Mountain View company, which provides us with the same information we talked about before and does so without our direct intervention; without the user formally requesting to receive said data.
Google Discover cards
Google Discover, in other words, is the Big G’s commitment to become the “center of the Internet” from your mobile. If you are doing scroll down and moving through the cards, you will see that the experience differs, comparatively speaking, very little with doing the same on Facebook or Twitter. The main difference is that although in these networks the content is poured by the users themselves, in Discover you will be able to get rid of them if you do not go in to read the comments on the news.
What is Google Discover for?
In essence, Google Discover serves to offer the user relevant news and related to their interests. There will be those who say that to do this they were already Google Feed and, before this, Google News (which, we remember, closed with the launch of the AEDE canon). However, Google Discover could not be more different from these two services: before, what mattered was the current news that was offered to the user, while with Google Discover the important thing is how the user interacts with the cards that he feed presents.
It is precisely thanks to this interaction that Google Discover has loaded the concept of keywords, since it offers here predictive search results that are extracted from four sources:
- The browsing history.
- Activity in the applications that Google can access (conversations, emails and etc.).
- The location history.
- User device information.
By accessing all the information that the Big G has about you using these sources, you already have a deep idea of what you want to see and what you don’t. This is an example from my Discover:
Personalized news on Google Discover
It is quite right with what it shows me. My main interests are music, videogames and, in addition, I am very fond of MotoGP.
And this is all great, but how do you access Google Discover? Very easy: all you have to do is enter the Google application that is installed by default on all Android devices. If you use iOS, you can download it on your iPhone or on your iPad.
As we said, click on the Google application icon. As soon as it opens you should see something like this:
Google Discover main screen
Let’s see what each thing is within the application. If you notice, on the inside of the screen there are a series of buttons. The first one, which is the one activated by default, is the one shown by Google Discover. If we click on Day view The Google Assistant will show us information relevant to us, such as how long it will take to get to work, the day’s weather forecast and the appointments we have pending for that day or for the week:
Day view provided by the Google Assistant
The next tab is the search tab, which will open a field to search in Google and will show us a history of recent searches:
Google searches
The next button is Collections. The idea is that you can add a page (or groups of pages) grouped by interests, so that it is easier for you to consult the information you need in a more direct way:
Google page collections
The last button is More, which allows us to access the search history, see our most recent searches, consult and schedule reminders, customize the widget Google search and tweak the Google application confirmation, among other things:
Configuration sections of the Google app
It is at this last point where you can edit the Google application preferences to make Discover much more precise. To do this, go to the route Settings> Interests> Your interests. On this screen you can remove or add themes according to your activity:
Personalization of interests for Google Discover
Unfortunately, there is little else you will be able to do to have Google Discover configured to your liking. This step is the closest thing to a feature customization.
