You no longer have to point your phone at your computer screen if you want to use Google Lens on your computer. As part of a string of updates, Google has revealed that Lens will be available for Chrome on the desktop in the “coming months.” You just have to right-click on a website, choose to search with Lens and select the part of the page you want to examine. After that, you’ll get results relating to the content you highlighted. Needless to say, that could be helpful if you’re trying to identify an animal or a hot new jacket.

There are some upgrades coming to Lens on your phone. An update in early 2022 will let you ask a question after snapping a photo. If you need to know how to repair a part on your bike, for instance, you’ll get results even if you don’t know what that part is. The Google app for iPhones, meanwhile, will let you search for products within images.

This is a not-so-subtle effort to boost Google Shopping. You might be more likely to buy apparel or bike parts if you can identify them, after all. Even so, the expansion could make Lens more useful as a general search tool, not just for special circumstances.

Source: Engadget – Google Lens is coming to Chrome on the desktop

There are many places in the world that don’t have an address system, which can restrict the opportunities available for people who live and work in those areas. Without an address, you can’t get mail or packages, nor can you vote or sign up for bank accounts, for example. Emergency responders can’t even find you easily if you don’t have an address. Google’s open-source Plus Codes system has been around since 2015 to help assign addresses to places, matching a series of letters and numbers to a set of latitude and longitude coordinates.

But, according to Google, “previously, creating addresses for an entire town or village could take years.” The company is releasing a new tool today called Address Maker that would make mass generation of these codes easier for governments and organizations. Google said that governments and non-government organizations (NGOs) in Kenya, India, South African and the US are already using Address Maker, “with more partners on the way.”

Anyone can enter one of these codes, which look like “P2J5+7C,” into Google Maps and see where that place is or get directions. For people who already have existing addresses that are long or complicated, these could be helpful in making sure your contacts find you at the correct spot. If you’ve ever tried to send a package to an industrial area in a country you’re not familiar with, you’ll probably find Plus Codes helpful, too.

Address Maker is a free Android app and shorted the previously years-long process to a few weeks, Google said. Based on an animated render, it appears you can outline segments on a map and add addresses for multiple structures within the area at once. You can check out Google’s page for more help, especially if you’re part of a local government or NGO.

Source: Engadget – Google wants to streamline the tricky process of assigning addresses in rural areas

At the start of the year, Google added a feature to its search engine called About This Result. By tapping on the three dots icon located next to most results, the tool allows you to find out more about a website before you navigate to it. With the initial rollout of About This Result, Google displayed information from Wikipedia, and, if that wasn’t available, it pulled what it could from one of its services. The panels also included details about the website like when it was first indexed by the company, and if you could expect a secure connection.

Today, Google is making those panels more robust by adding to the diversity of information they display. To start, in addition to a description from Wikipedia, you’ll see what each website has to say about itself in its own words. You will also see what others have had to say about them — be that through reviews or a simple news article. In the “about the topic” section, Google will include other coverage or results from different sources.

As before, the idea behind the About This Result feature is to save you an extra search when you want to find out more about a website you’re about to visit. Google also sees it as a way to help people make more informed decisions about how they use the internet and provide peace of mind if you’re looking for important information related to important topics. 

Aside from these “Information Literacy features,” the company also announced new features coming to its results pages during its Search On event today. They’re called Things to Know, Refine This Search, Broaden This Search and Related Topics to its results to make it easier to learn more about different topics. Things To Know, for example, will pull up the basics you’ll need to understand a new subject, while refining and broadening your search can help you explore related issues.

Google Search users in the US will see today’s expansion roll out over the coming weeks and months.

Cherlynn Low contributed to this post.

Source: Engadget – Google adds more information to its ‘About this result’ feature

Google has introduced a wildfire layer for Maps, allowing users around the world to keep a close eye on multiple fires at once. The tech giant says this new feature builds on the wildfire boundary map it rolled out in the US last year and it’s meant to help people “make quick, informed decisions during times of emergency.” With the layer enabled, users will be able to see the wildfires raging in their location — tapping on any of them will bring up links to emergency websites, helpline numbers and evacuation details provided by local government. 

If available, the tool will also show details about the fire, including its containment, the acres it has already burned and the time that information was last reported. The wildfire layer will start its global rollout to Android devices this week and to iOS devices and PCs in October. While it will display most major fires — the kind that necessitates evacuations — around the world, it’ll have the capability to display smaller incidents in the US, thanks to data provided by the National Interagency Fire Center. Google is planning to offer that level of detail in more locations, starting with Australia in the coming months. 

In addition, Google is expanding the information available through its Tree Canopy tool. At the moment, it can only provide data for 15 cities in the US, but it’ll be able to show information for 100 cities around the world in 2022. Google’s Tree Canopy Insights combines AI capabilities with aerial data to determine the parts of a city with the greatest risk of rapidly rising temperatures. It could help local governments figure out where to plant trees and where to focus any project they may have to fight climate change. Los Angeles authorities, for instance, are already using the tool to help them increase the city’s tree canopy by 50 percent by 2028. While Google didn’t say which cities are getting access to the tool by next year, it said Guadalajara, London, Sydney and Toronto are in the list.

Source: Engadget – Google Maps will roll out wildfire tracking worldwide