Google is right now testing out a local news card for Google Now, and this particular move would make plenty of good sense. After all, this particular application is meant to keep track of you regardless of where you are, round the clock, all the while pushing relevant information over to you depending on your past searches and calendar listings among others. Since this is a beta test for the local news card, it is taking place within Google itself. Google is currently gathering feedback from users, and hopefully the feedback received will be used to good effect so that any final decisions by Google would ensure that the local news card, when it is introduced to the masses, will be great to use right out of the box.
Johanna Wright, vice president of search and assist, Google, shared, “One thing we’re testing right now is a very local hyper-local news card. Which is really useful—it teaches me things about my neighborhood. For example, I found out Miss Mexico came to my son’s school, I saw that [the local] Chipotle was giving out burritos, and someone was stabbed in the park near my house. It’s very, very targeted to you and your interests.” When Google has such information of its millions of users worldwide, you can be sure that there is the very real possibility of using this information to be even more targeted and specific in its information delivery – and who knows, targeted ads, too. Will it be introduced with a fully working real-time translation service?
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