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Android Will Now Store Google Searches Offline and Deliver Them When You Get Signal (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the moving-things-forward dept.

Google is rolling out an update for its Android app that makes it easier to search on the web with an inconsistent internet connection. Users can make searches when offline and the Google app will store them, delivering the results later (with an optional notification) when the devices get signal again. From a report: As Google product manager Shekhar Sharad writes in a blog post: "So the next time you lose service, feel free to queue up your searches, put your phone away and carry on with your day. The Google app will work behind-the-scenes to detect when a connection is available again and deliver your search results once completed."

26 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Store-and-forward spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm surprised it took Google this long to admit doing something like this.

    1. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by HumanWiki · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised it took Google this long to admit doing something like this.

      Eh, to be fair. There are many applications that have an offline mode that will store-and-forward your comments, replies, posts, etc. once signal is reacquired. Most text/pic messaging does this already.

    2. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 1

      Hold on a second, to perform a search you have to send the query off to the search engine (probably Google). So, by intent, the engine has to get your query in order to provide the correct results.

      Your claim is that it's helping them spy by giving them access to something that you already had the intent of giving them.

    3. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "There are many applications that have an offline mode that will store-and-forward your comments, replies, posts, etc. once signal is reacquired."

      No there aren't. Most "Apps" are pointless shells around a HTTP REST API. Basically a glorified browser.

      The only App I've known to do this was G+ which will hang onto your posts until the connection comes back. But even then, they're only doing it because Google is/was desperate for posts to G+, and it wasn't very reliable anyway...

    4. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by HumanWiki · · Score: 1

      "There are many applications that have an offline mode that will store-and-forward your comments, replies, posts, etc. once signal is reacquired."

      No there aren't. Most "Apps" are pointless shells around a HTTP REST API. Basically a glorified browser.

      The only App I've known to do this was G+ which will hang onto your posts until the connection comes back. But even then, they're only doing it because Google is/was desperate for posts to G+, and it wasn't very reliable anyway...

      Yes, there are. Just because you don't know of them or use them doesn't mean they don't exist. Off the top of my head, the Facebook mobile app will absolutely store you comments until you're online and then post for them.

    5. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by HumanWiki · · Score: 1

      Eh, to be fair. There are many applications that have an offline mode that will store-and-forward your comments, replies, posts, etc. once signal is reacquired.

      So now Google's excuse for doing evil is "Others do evil too"?

      Any pretense of having an ethical standing is long gone at Google. They don't even bother to hide it anymore.

      You're an idiot. You're sending a search request to a provider, how the f* do you think they're going to give you results if it doesn't know what you're looking for? Also, if you think for one second that your data in transit to something like that isn't already affected by a MITM or copying or indexing, etc. then you're naive and just complaining to complain.

    6. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      PS: I used the past tense there because I've actually given up on all this nonsense in the past two years. I don't use a "smart phone" any more and just don't give shit about 99% of the BS. When it comes to computers: everything that I take seriously I use my laptop for, everything that I take really seriously I use my server for, and nothing else is worth it. I don't miss having the pocket computer at all, and enjoy the break when I'm away from the laptop. I feel a little restless sometimes on public transport by myself, but now I read, and if I don't have anything to read I stare vacantly out the window. I find that is not time wasted and it really helps me get my thoughts together.

    7. Re:Store-and-forward spyware by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      I'm surprised it took Google this long to admit doing something like this.

      Sounds like you don't know how searching on the web works. You agreed to give them your search term when you made the search in the first place, the fact that the device is clever enough to hold on to it until you have signal makes no difference to your privacy.

  2. We get signal by HumanWiki · · Score: 4, Funny

    Needs to turn Main Screen On and ask how I am doing.

    1. Re:We get signal by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I turn my Main Screen on by running my finger across it sensually.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:We get signal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How are you gentlemen?

    3. Re:We get signal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Somebody set up us the Galaxy Note 7

    4. Re:We get signal by Muntzsky · · Score: 2

      All your search are belong to us.

    5. Re:We get signal by wbr1 · · Score: 1

      Main screen turn on you say? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      --
      Silence is a state of mime.
    6. Re:We get signal by scourfish · · Score: 1

      I don't think you know what you doing

    7. Re:We get signal by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      You have no chance for privacy make your time

  3. Re:Pointless by HumanWiki · · Score: 3, Informative

    When I search google its because I want it now. If I know I don't have a connection I won't bother searching.

    There's plenty of people, like me, that take a commuter train to/from work or just around the metro area and those have dead zones they pass through, times of high load, etc. and I'll still like to have a search come back from me. What if I have it trying to search and it dies then? It would be nice for it to queue and return one that short blip is over, instead of me getting the error screen and having to go back and then search again.

  4. This is how all mobile software should work by tietokone-olmi · · Score: 2

    Having a workable offline mode is what separates general-purpose computing from smart terminals. Useful operation despite having spotty connectivity, or none at all, is required of applications that're not just a native front-end to some gone-tomorrow cloud backend horsepuckey.

    So let's hope Google's example in this regard catches on. We have gigabytes upon gigabytes of spare room for caches on most Android hardware; how about putting it to use?

    1. Re:This is how all mobile software should work by adolf · · Score: 1

      We already are.

      Google Maps can already navigate offline using explicitly cached data, as can Waze with incidentally cached data. Google Now is happy to show me headlines while offline, and will load a story that I've selected as soon as connectivity returns. Most of the apps that I use don't require connectivity. There are even web browsers that work offline.

      "Doing things offline" is not a new feature in portable computing. It's just a new feature in this particular app from Google.

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
    2. Re:This is how all mobile software should work by tietokone-olmi · · Score: 1

      Of course the tea timer application works offline. The music player will play music from the phone's flash ROM. Saved PDFs will display. Cached e-mails can be read, and others written to be send when connectivity returns.

      But things like "Reddit is fun" straight up don't work offline. The application doesn't hit the servers to cache up the most recent 48h of stuff on your front page. It's crippled without connectivity, despite being fancy enough for a standalone application. And this is the direction where we're headed, because city people think everywhere has 4G.

    3. Re:This is how all mobile software should work by adolf · · Score: 1

      Tons of very complicated stuff works offline -- even things that benefit strongly from being connected.

      But I'm not sure how useful Reddit would be with a bunch of cached headlines and nothing else...

      --
      Kid-proof tablet..
  5. I thought something entirely different: by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

    Thanks, headline, for getting that song stuck in my $#&ing head...

    "We get signal"

    "...what?"

    "Main screen turn on."

    "It's you."

    "How are you gentlemen. All your base are belong to us..."

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  6. Top queued searches of 2017 by aicrules · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Porn-related
    2. Why google not working
    3. Is internet down

    1. Re:Top queued searches of 2017 by nukenerd · · Score: 1

      11 pm - Search for BDSM porn : Sorry, no signal.
      10 am - Next day in corporate meeting : "Do it honey! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!"

  7. What's the use case? by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

    If I want to look something up, and the internet is down, I cannot look something up. Most searches are useless if untimely. What would an example be of a good delayed search.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  8. Store Search by b783719 · · Score: 1

    Not exactly searches, but most browser apps doesn't store but already 'keep' a hyperlink of your search. Ex: type "iphone' in google search bar, you get something along https://www.google.com/search?... without connected to internet.

    And depends if you have reconnected, some app will immediate reload the webpage. If not, you could click the reload. This seems like an old feature.

    Correct me if I'm wrong.