Tag: Search »

Google updated their iOS search app this week. And with it they included an updated voice search that really amazes. Nearly instant voice translation and quick lookups really make Siri look like an also ran. It also works on a lot of devices that Siri doesn't. Embarrassing....

Here's a demo comparing Siri to the updated Google voice search from YouTube user KenFilmsHD:

Cloud + magic = Cloudmagic.

Cloudmagic allows you to search across many of your cloud based services, all in one place. It amazes with how quick it is as well. Connect your Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Evernote, and other services. Then you can search across all of them in one place.

Remember part of a name but not where you saw it, search in Cloudmagic and it will find where you saw it, quickly, easily. Very impressive. Give it a shot, let us know what you think.

Leap2 is the latest app that aims to make it easy to search through social media, as well as other web results.

Referred to as a 'living search platform', the app makes it simple to browse through all kinds of search results at once, covering both web results and real-time hits from people. It's the kind of resource that should prove particularly useful in times of breaking news or sports results, as well as providing a great way of gauging public reaction to something.

This all sounds much like Twitter's trending topics, but the bonus to Leap2 is that it incorporates more than just Twitter. Users create a 'leap' they're interested in to receive continuing updates which stems from the likes of Bing, Yahoo! Local, Foursquare, Yelp and Twitter. It's all very simple to browse yet potentially quite powerful.

Adaptable for everything from the latest news, hype about a new movie or the local weather report, Leap2 is an interesting and free way of checking out plenty of different viewpoints at once.

Where To?, Editor's Choice winning local search app (reviewed years ago by our Editor In Chief, Jeff Scott), has just released its next major version of the app Where To? 5.0. In this fifth major release, new features are added in the favoriting and navigation area.

Specifically, the app has four new major features. Two of those features have to do with favorites. Users can now favorite places to come back and access them later. In addition, those favorites as well as the apps settings can be synced over iCloud. And now, when searching for restaurants, hundreds of thousands of the US restaurants in Where To? include menus for users to search through before they decide to make that tough decision of where to eat. And the app now supports three more navigation apps when users decide to visit a location (iGo Prime, VZ Navigator, and Gokivo). The details pages for places also have a new design.

Where To? is a location-based search app that brings up points of interest in the area around the user. The app is also known for its augmented reality (AR) technology which can be added to the app for an additional fee. Where To? is $2.99 and made for the iPhone. An additional $0.99 will earn users the 3D and Augmented Reality features.

James Shaw, handy app wonder-developer, has done it again. Now that the need for spontaneous toilet location is covered, he's moved on to the next most important thing: pizza. That's right, just like the ever-useful Toilet Finder, Pizza Finder automatically hunts down any nearby deliciousness and shows users exactly where to find it.

From mom and pop joints to upscale eateries, from Little Caesar's to Dominos, Pizza Finder will use the iOS device's built-in GPS to locate anything that sells the tasty pies and literally provide a map to it. The app also presents addresses and contact info, which makes setting up reservations while en route a breeze. Of course, it's also useful for ordering takeout. Then leading the way to the restaurant so the food can actually be taken out, naturally.

Pizza-enthusiasts who hate being left out in the cold when traipsing through parts unknown can rest easy. Pizza Finder is here. Heck, for $1 it can make pretty much anyone's life (or at least last-minute meal plans) easier.

I imagine suburbanites wouldn't get much use out of it, but us metropolitan... -ites (?) could put 16 year-old app aficionado James Shaw's Toilet Finder! to good use. Well, us and anyone visiting our "fair" city. Lots of tourists fail to come up with a Potty Plan when they set out on their walking tours and whatnot.

It's a common problem when anyone is oot and aboot in unfamiliar territory. Someone has to "go," and no one knows where the nearest restroom is. It typically leads to one of two scenarios: either the twitchy individual leaves the pack to look for one on their own, which usually takes a lot longer than expected, or they all wander off and waste time that could have been better spent on other things. This is exactly why Toilet Finder! was created.

The app uses the GPS to automatically find and display all known toilets in the immediate area. Conveniently displayed in either map, satellite or hybrid styles. Any crap-tanks in the database will also be accompanied by an address and phone number, just in case it's late at night or in a weird location. And just to make things even more helpful, the app can provide directions to the desired bathroom.

Sounds useful, no? Toilet Finder! is in the App Store right now for a dollar. Given the amount of time and/or money one could waste while searching for an "outlet" - I'm inclined to think it might be worth it.

If there were a single purpose that smartphones specialize in more than any other, it would be searching for random bits of information out of the clear blue sky.  Who knows when the random sports fact or vindicating morsel of information might come in handy, so why wouldn't you want to use the mini-computer in your pocket to do the legwork?

But in this world where there are an immense amount of searching options at your disposal, sometimes it can be quite difficult to determine the easiest way to find the information that is needed.  This is why the app Flex Search 2.0 is so helpful.  Not only will it find the necessary data in no time flat, but it will use a multitude of the best tools and search engines available to make it all possible.  Utilizing sites ranging from Google to Bing and everything else in between, this is a piece of software that makes searching both fast and smart.  Give the free version a download and let us know if you feel the same way in the comments.

do@ (pronounced do-at) is an impressive take on mobile search delivering you results from multiple sites that match the context of your search in a card like interface and does so very quickly. It is a worthy attempt at remedying mobile search pain and information overload.

At the heart of do@, and the key to its innovation, is a method to return results from many mobile friendly sites at once. Once you enter your search query, do@ returns a bunch of categories it thinks match the context of your query. Once you choose one, it will return results from the sites that match that category. Those results are returned as full mobile web apps, in a card like interface, not as a list of results. You can then scroll through those site cards and focus in on one that matchs your needs exactly. This allows each site to tailor those results, to match the context you have chosen. This what really sets do@ apart from searching in a normal search engine page.

For example, if you search for Radiohead on Google or Bing, or any other search engine, you'll get a list of links back to pages that mention the band Radiohead. It's what you'd expect because that's what you've always gotten. But that lacks context. You might get reviews, comments on Twitter, and YouTube videos all blended in together. But search for Radiohead in do@, and you'll get web apps back that can deliver rich results. You will get a tab for song downloads, lyrics, tour dates, videos, etc. And each card will be able to tailor the display of those results to match the context.

In an cloud sourcing type of feature, do@ also allows you to connect your search experience to your social graph. This allows your social connections to influence what sites you see results returned in first. If lots of your friends think that Sound Cloud is a great source for music searches, that site will move up in your list. You can, of course, always control this and set your favorite search sites to override this.

In my time with do@, I've come to realize that it could, if used effectively replace Safari as my starting point for the mobile web. It's a slightly different way to think of how you get to data on the web, but once you make that change, it will save you loads of time by getting you to the results you want much quicker.

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iPad users will notice something a little different when they open the App Store on their device and open up search. The App Store application, which itself does not require updating, has been refreshed and includes new (and frankly, necessary) features that make it much easier to discover apps that you’re looking for, as well as pinpointing applications that you’ve downloaded before but no longer have installed – perhaps due a fresh iOS install.

The refined search now allows you to show results from a specific category and subcategory (eg. Games or Action Games or Utilities); apps released within the past 7 / 14 / 31 days; free or paid (no specific price brackets); iPad, iPhone or universally built; and apps that have received a certain overall consumer rating (eg. 2+, 3+, 4+ or 5 stars). These filters are inter-compatible, meaning you can search for an app and then limit results by, for example: games only, iPad only, 4+ stars. With over 330,000 applications currently available to download, such filters are a welcome addition.

And that's not all. Conveniently, applications that have been bought but are not currently installed on your device will now show up in the App Store as "Install" rather than "Free" or "Buy Now" - meaning you can be sure that what you're downloading is what you've bought. Beforehand, consumers had to manually check their iTunes receipts to confirm that the application had been bought, and then hit "Buy Now" despite having already bought it. Only after the iTunes password was entered - which meant your account could then be charged if you didn't own the app - did a notification arise stating that you've already bought the application and that you'd be able to download it without charge. The update, that will already be installed on all iPads, fixes all of that. In addition, any apps that require updating will read "Update" in the App Store rather than "Free" or "Install". Presently, the update is iPad only, meaning iPhone users are still relegated to the old search.

On a related note, 148Apps has updated its search engine - making it easier than ever to find the apps or blog posts you're looking for. Go ahead and try it out!

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