Google has turned 18 today, and at its ongoing “Google for India” event in New Delhi, the company has made a number of announcements to make internet easily accessible in India. Internet penetration in India is still the most in cities, with billions in villages still unconnected. Users are now shifting to smartphones, telecom operators are rolling out their 4G services, but in most circles, users are latched on to 2G connections. To allow users discover more apps and download the on their smartphones, Google is testing a Google Play Store app that will work on slower 2G networks.
Caesar Sengupta, Google's VP for Next Billion Users, outlined the company's vision:
Our goal has not just been to help more Indians get online — but also to help Indians create the online experience they want; one that serves their needs and enables them to have an impact on the entire world. So we have been thinking about how to build products and services for this wave of new users — products that work for any level of connectivity, in local Indian languages, and across the devices that are most frequently used in India.
We're starting to see 4G networks take off in India, but the reality is that a majority of customers still rely on 2G connectivity. The app is exclusively designed for India and the automatic rollout will start later today. The new Play Store app will cache popular pages and allow users to download apps later when on Wi-Fi network via a Wait for Wi-Fi feature. Google is also working on offline search. So, when you are offline and make a search query, Google will send you a notification whether you would want to perform the search query when you’re connected to the internet. This feature will soon be made available to users in India.
To make Google services available for non-English speaking users, the company has also announced voice search support in Hindi. It also demonstrated the working of voice search at the event. To make the internet work for everyone with the Indic keyboard Google has also introduced tabbed search experience. It also mentioned that Hindi content consumption grew five times at the rate at which English content is consumed.
Also, the Google Assistant – an upgraded version Google Now, which we have already seen in the company’s Allo messenger will soon be made available in Hindi. This will allow users to ask for queries in Hindi language and it will revert in the same language. That’s not all; Google has also announced the expansion of free Wi-Fi beyond railway stations. It’s a global initiative called Google Station and the company is also working on making it easier for partners to setup, maintain and monetize their Wi-Fi networks.
YouTube Go is designed for offline usage. Building on the Smart Offline feature that debuted earlier this year, YouTube Go lets users easily download videos. The app shows how large a particular file is before the download commences, and users have the ability to choose 720p and Full HD content for offline viewing as well. The app also shows previews of videos, giving users more options when it comes to managing their data bandwidth.
In a statement, YouTube product management VP Johanna Wright said:
YouTube Go is a brand new app to help the next generation of users share and enjoy videos. YouTube Go was designed and built from the ground up with insights from India, in order to bring the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while still being locally relevant and social.
If you're interested, you can now sign up for YouTube Go.
Chrome has a built-in Data Saver mode that compresses data, and starting today, the feature works with MP4 videos as well. All downloaded content is accessible from a new Downloads tab, and Google is claiming that the feature will see bandwidth savings of up to 67%.
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