INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
News is far and away the feature I use the most with Google Assistant
Every morning, I ask the Assistant &what in the news,& and it dutifully cycles through some pre-recorded news briefs from NPR, CNN and the
It does the job, but it not much for specificity
Google, however, is introducing tools to help developers target specific content based on queries
Per the example given in a new blog post, publishers can highlight a snippet of a story that will be read aloud when a user makes a request
along the lines of &Hey Google, what the latest news on NASA&Assistant will then read that portion aloud
The link to the full article is sent to the user mobile device and, once done, Assistant will ask if they want another
It interesting to watch companies like Google and Amazon play around with these news reads
It seems no one has quite figured out the ideal length for audible news digests, but it appears to fall somewhere between a headline and
Or maybe it something more akin to bullet points, with the option to read on if the user wants more information.
Organizations like NPR
and CNN do appear to have something of a head start, since a smart speaker briefing isn&t entirely dissimilar from getting your information
from cable news or public radio
Short, distilled snippets certainly seem like the way to go
As more people use the service and the AIs become more advanced, it will be easier to tailor that information to specific users
At the very least, this should provide a way to further customize those feeds — not to mention giving Google even more insight into what
its users are searching for
The feature will only be available for U.S
English speakers at launch.
