Technology

Google Search Gets Personal Pulling Information From Your Gmail Into Results

SAN FRANCISCO (TheBlaze/AP) — On Wednesday, Google announced its Internet search engine would draw information from its users’ Gmail accounts on its main results page for those who opt into its pilot program.

The feature announced Wednesday marks Google’s latest attempt to deliver data that people are seeking more quickly as it tries to maintain the dominance of its lucrative Internet search engine.

Google Inc. is initially testing the feature with 1 million Gmail users who must sign up to participate. Gmail’s more than 425 million users already can search within their e-mail accounts to find something they need, such as an order from Amazon.com or an airline reservation. Now, Gmail users who join the trial will be shown a list of relevant e-mails on Google’s main search results page if the correspondence contains a word entered in a search request.

Here’s more from the company’s blog post announcing the pilot feature:

Sometimes the best answer to your question isn’t available on the public web—it may be contained somewhere else, such as in your email. We think you shouldn’t have to be your own mini-search engine to find the most useful information—it should just work. A search is a search, and we want our results to be truly universal. So we’re developing a way to find this information for you that’s useful and unobtrusive, and we’d love your feedback. Starting today, we’re opening up a limited trial where you can sign up to get information from your Gmail right from the search box.

So if you’re planning a biking trip to Tahoe, you might see relevant emails from friends about the best bike trails, or great places to eat on the right hand side of the results page. If it looks relevant you can then expand the box to read the emails:

Google Begins Pilot Program That Displays Information From User Gmail Accounts in Main Search Results

(Image: Google)

CNET reports that there are “rudimentary” security controls for this new search functionality. It notes the globe icon at the top right of the page will hide these more personal results, while clicking on the human silhouette icon can bring them back:

Sagar Kamdar, the Director of Product Management for Universal Search at Google, explained that the Gmail integration is more limited because of the unique challenges e-mail presents. “Gmail is almost the same size as our Web corpus, and now you need to make it private and secure,” he said.

Of course, one would need to be logged into his or her Gmail account for this functionality to occur and only information from his or her Gmail would be displayed in search results.

CNET also reports Senior Vice President of Google Search Amit Singhal, who authored the announcement blog post, saying although this search function is not available for smartphones, but “it is coming.”

Google also announced that its “Knowledge Graph” — a “database of more than 500 million real-world people, places and things with 3.5 billion attributes and connections among them” – was going global.

“If you’re in Australia and search for [chiefs], you’ll get the rugby team—its players, results and history,” Singhal wrote. “[...] if you search for [rio], you might be interested in the Brazilian city, the recent animated movie or the casino in Vegas. Thanks to the Knowledge Graph, we can now give you these different suggestions of real-world entities in the search box as you type.”

Watch Google’s video announcement on these new capabilities:

Google also released an enhanced version of voice search to “better interpret your questions and sometimes speak the answers back as full sentences.” Watch how the feature works:

Comments (32)

  • RobbieTLHughie
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:43am

    Christopholes! You people are paranoid as all get out! These don’t add your e-mails to OTHER people’s search results… God, it seems like a scary majority of you are lost in some kind of tech-free dream state, without any understanding of the Internet or the hardware you utilize it on. What a scary world it must be for you, with all the wireless devices and such.

    Google has been collecting your information forever, the Internet is a web *OF COLLECTED INFORMATION*, if Google does’t collect it, someone else will, it’s how it works!

    Report Post » RobbieTLHughie  
  • RobbieTLHughie
    Posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:39am

    Queue technophobic comments by old folks who read The Blaze and don’t understand 101 about their computer in 3… 2… 1… Damn, already beat me to it…

    Report Post » RobbieTLHughie  
  • Meyvn
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 12:17pm

    Meh.

    Report Post » Meyvn  
  • supermurder
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 12:06pm

    Google has been doing this to me for a while now, and I never signed up for anything.
    For example: I wrote about my friends daughter named Charlotte. Then suddenly I get ads for discounted air fare to Charlotte, NC.

    Report Post » supermurder  
  • lketchum
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 9:29am

    Please, ladies and gentlemen, please do not use Google, or Apple products.

    They do not see themselves as American corporations, but as globalists that mock America and what it represents.

    They have very poorly designed software that is extremely vulnerable to external attack.
    They collude with globalists and sell your most secret information along with profiles so complete it would, or “should” terrify all people whom love liberty and individual freedom.

    Shut them down. Avoid them. Appeal To Heaven!

    Report Post » lketchum  
    • DarthMims
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 1:12pm

      You are kidding, right? Apple products are the least likely products to be hacked, and have much more reliable operating systems than anything Microsoft or any phone manufacturer has ever came up with. I don‘t buy Apple products for the simple fact that I can’t afford them.

      Report Post » DarthMims  
    • K Chad Roberts
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 2:24pm

      Darthmims,

      Microsoft software is the most reliable and virus hardened software commercially available. Apple propaganda has worked on you… Windows OS‘s and software that runs on those OS’s have more built in redundancies (which is why they can run a bit slower) allowing them more flexibility and reliability, and making for more resilient software against hacking and virus attacks. Sony, Apple and Google software are extremely easy to hack. Microsoft software is often hacked, but it takes much more work to do so.

      With that said, any computer with open network ports can be hacked. There’s no avoiding that reality. I find the idea of boycotting Apple or Google quite mundain of a suggestion though. They’re quite open with what they do (maybe you should start reading the privacy policies and EULAs). If you don’t like it, then don’t use it, or turn off cookies and auto-signins. It’s not hard to avoid unwanted privacy breaches from honest corporations like Apple and Google. If you’re looking to avoid dishonest breaches in your privacy, I suggest you ignore the steriotypes of the different OS’s. They’re too general.

      All in all, find a company, and User Interface that you like and go with it. I hate the OS’s Apple comes up with, but their hardware is amazing… so I do have a few of their mobile devices. For a computer, I enjoy the freedom presented by Microsoft and Linux, so I dual-boot on cloned twin-computers, with triple backups. Expensive, but only an EMP wi

      Report Post »  
    • RobbieTLHughie
      Posted on August 10, 2012 at 9:40am

      You really have not a clue what you’re talking about do you?

      Report Post » RobbieTLHughie  
  • piper60
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 8:02am

    I got off of gmail, and stopped using google as my search engine a few months ago. The only search I do with them is for images. Period. And since it tends to be images to use for a desktop wallpaper, I doubt that they can get any marketing info from that.

    Report Post » piper60  
  • Redhawke
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 5:17am

    I performed a Googlectomy on all of my systems a fews months back when I discovered Google Drive indexing my hard drive. I removed all Google products from the systems, I opened other email accounts elsewhere and shifted my emails, and I block Google javascripts from running on my systems. They are not to be trusted.

    Report Post »  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 10:19am

      You mentioned googledrive.Is this software or an addon you downloaded from them or is it something you found on your computer?

      Report Post »  
  • LimitedLiabilityUser
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 5:12am

    Meanwhile, The Blaze has at least 7 analytics tracking cookies from Akami…

    If you are using Bing, do you honestly think Microsoft isn’t collecting data? I mean, Bing was caught red-handed stealing Google search results and displaying them as their own[1].

    Unfortunately, Google isn’t the only company that relies on knowing something about you to improve the experience or generate revenue. Most of this information is not what you would call Personally Identifiable Information (PII), or namely, information that could directly or indirectly compromise your identity.

    And, even DuckDuckGo‘s search queries aren’t sent over https by default, which is the same as Google. You can enable them for both, but have you?

    Do you trust your ISP? They can be subpoenaed (and have been) to divulge the data they collect on every network packet sent from your computer. There used to be a room in an dominant AT&T hub where network data was collected and analyzed to monitor and track potential terrorist threats (all under the FISA laws of course). At some point it just becomes a matter of weighing the cost-benefit of relinquishing a certain (albeit usually vague) amount of privacy for the utility of the service.

    [1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html

    Report Post » LimitedLiabilityUser  
    • Redhawke
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 7:36am

      Can you trust any of them? Probably not. But, Google is at the bottom of my trust list. In my opinion, Google is SkyNet.

      Report Post »  
  • raderby
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 4:23am

    yes, just wondered when the announcement would be made. EVERY word you type is logged. Has been so for some time now. Do NOT use Google products. They are a willing arm of the government.

    Report Post » raderby  
    • BlueStarMom
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 4:49am

      You’re right, but it’s next to impossible to use the internets without interacting with Google. All my kids use gmail. My husband’s work email is gmail. Even if you use another search engine, the sites you shop on track you for google. I tried to ungoogle a few months ago. It’s like using the computer with a blindfold on. It takes a lot of time and accomplishes very little. They should have learned their lesson from Facebook, and probably still will because people won’t tolerate such an invasion of our illusion of online privacy.

      Report Post »  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 10:16am

      @bluestarmom
      Yeah I tried to unhook from google completely too.You are so right about the headaches associated with it.I tried other general search engines ,couldn’t find half of what I needed.I’m not happy with the lack of privacy ,but I’d rather deal with that, than the frustration of not being able to find what I’m looking for.
      One thing most of us either do or would if we could.EIther limit or don’t use certain products they offer.Sadly some of the products they offer would be very useful, but lack a certain standard ofsecurity.

      Report Post »  
  • Free2speakRN
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 1:53am

    Since Goggle started ‘helping’ to search, everyday, advertisements are popping up every time I go to another site. Once in a while I’ll find 7 or 8 at a time. And I’m trying to be careful what I do.

    Note: Is this common now? ‘and’ What can I do? I know I am not a wizard of the computer and web, but this garbage had started at the point of their ‘helping us’..

    Report Post »  
    • raderby
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 4:27am

      do NOT use any google products. Use a SPYWARE program DAILY to remove malware and spyware. Since I stopped using google search engine, I get get FAR less pop-up ads, and my anti-spyware software finds little snoops, if any, on a daily basis. I used to get 3-4 minimum daily when using google previously.

      REMOVE GOOGLE from your computer.

      Report Post » raderby  
  • DRAGONSEED
    Posted on August 9, 2012 at 12:33am

    This is why we should not only REFUSE to use google services, especially their gmail, but also refuse to correspond with anyone who uses gmail.

    Why would anybody use an email provider/service that is scouring your email and nosing around in your personal life?

    Report Post » DRAGONSEED  
  • WARRIORSCROWN
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 11:44pm

    Screw Big Brother is all I have to say!

    Report Post »  
  • Pontiac
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 11:26pm

    Number one rule when creating an email account.
    ►Do not use your full name when creating your email accounts. Abbreviate.◄

    Second rule.
    ►Do not use your name as your email address.◄

    The only time I’ve broke those rules is when I created my account for my business.

    Lastly get Firefox and add Adblock Plus and Ghostery to it.

    Report Post » Pontiac  
    • DRAGONSEED
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 12:28am

      NUMBER ONE rule above all others:
      Do not use Google (or Google-sponsored-related-products or services) for ANYthing.

      Report Post » DRAGONSEED  
    • Melika
      Posted on August 9, 2012 at 10:14am

      AdMuncher you have to pay a yearly subscription to, but I found it kicks butt. You can also add NoScript onto Firefox and only give permission (either permanent or temporary) to sites you trust/want. I have almost all the crap “The Blaze” uses blocked – and it’s a lot, especially from a site that is purportedly ‘conservative’.

      Report Post »  
  • Anonymous T. Irrelevant
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 11:16pm

    Must sign up, or are they going to sneak it so that your privacy controls will change again and put you in it?

    Report Post » Anonymous T. Irrelevant  
  • RightThinking1
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:51pm

    I dumped Google a long time ago. Googletards give me the creeps.

    Report Post »  
  • JTX
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:42pm

    I cancelled my GMAIL email account service a year ago. While I use a droid phone through google, I refuse to use them for email, for them to snoop.

    Report Post »  
  • DDD
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:31pm

    I don’t use Google. No Facebook, no Twitter account. Stay away from hotmail, msn and yahoo. I use gmail but only search on Bing. It’s impossible to stay completely away from everything – but there’s just too much tracking going on for me.

    Report Post »  
    • QuincySmith
      Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:57pm

      DDD;

      Try ixquick (ixquick.com) – bing is M$ perhaps worse than google.

      Report Post » QuincySmith  
  • Smokey_Bojangles
    Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:21pm

    Just do not say things like,“The Movie was a Bomb” or “I had Chick-Fil-A for lunch“ or ” Eric Holder is a Bum.”

    Report Post » Smokey_Bojangles  
    • Leadthemtothelight
      Posted on August 8, 2012 at 9:42pm

      Rofl ….nah what the hell…. better to be on a gov watch list then loose your freedom of speech.

      Report Post » Leadthemtothelight  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love