Google Now Allows You To Check If Stock Is Available Nearby

on 03/11/2010, filed in Home > General

Have you ever been in a scenario where you google for an item online, find it at a store nearby, fight through traffic to get there, only to find out that it’s out of stock? Well, Google is looking to help you tackle that issue, with its latest “In stock nearby” feature for mobile devices. When searching for products sold by participating retailers (Best Buy, Sears, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery barn and West Elm), if there is a blue dot next to the item, you can click on the “In stock nearby” link to check if the item is “In stock” or has “Limited Availability” near you (as long as you’ve enabled My Location or manually specified your location). It’s currently available for iPhone, webOS and Android-powered devices, though there isn’t any mention of Windows Mobile in the official post, is this a sign of things to come? If you’re a retailer and want to participate in this program, Google has a form that you can fill out to be considered.

Official post.

Android: Android is the mobile operating system from Google. The software was originally built by a company called Android Inc, that was purchased by Google in 2005. From its modest debuts, Android has become a powerhouse that powers not only smartphones and tablet, but a host of other less high-profile devices and gadgets. Although Android is not a community-driven project, Google does release the source code as open-source under the Apache license. You can follow Ubergizmo on Android with Google Currents.

Apple Inc: Apple Inc was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne as a computer company wich is often credited to have initiated personal computing. After a meteoric rise in the 80s, Apple had lost the personal computing battle against Microsoft and others in the 90s. But in the late 90s and early 2000s, the company came back to profitability by focusing on less products and started using industry-standard components. Apple's largest business is now in the smartphone space, with the iPhone representing more than half of the revenues and an even larger part of the profits. Read our Apple product reviews to see what the company has been up to: iPhone 5 Review, Macbook Pro with Retina display review

Google: Google is an Internet Search company with profits mainly derived from its AdWords advertising program. Google is also known for other high-profile web-related products such as Chrome, GMail, Google Docs or Google Map, and it has also made a very successful entry into the mobile handset market with its Android mobile operating system. The company was created in 1998 and went public in 2004. Google is one of the most visited site in the world.

iPhone: iPhone: The iPhone is Apple's line of smartphones. That was also the original name of the first iPhone, which was announced on January 9th 2007 by Steve Jobs during the Macworld Keynote. The iPhone was released to the public in June of the same year. The development of the iPhone started in 2004, was internally called "project purple" and was the fruit of a collaboration between Apple and AT&T. Since then, Apple has released new iPhone models every year, with the iPhone 3G in July 2008, the iPhone 3GS in June 2009, the iPhone 4 in June 2010, the iPhone 4S in October 2011 and the iPhone 5 in September 2012. The iPhone represented more than half of Apple's revenues in 2012.

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