Search After The Search Box: Google Now Pushes Into The Next Frontier Of Mobile Behav

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It’s a world Google expects soon, one that poses an existential quandary for the search giant: What happens if the one doing the telling isn’t Google? That’s one of the chief concerns of Aparna Chennapragada, the Google executive who has run Google Now, its AI-driven smart personal ***istant, since the start of this year. Her aim is to have Google Now surface stuff that’s highly relevant to users — local weather, favorite sports scores, calendar appointments — but also in ways that can be predictive, prescient. She wants it to answer questions people may not even have thought to ask.

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In January, the service started integrating with popular apps, pushing notifications customized around personal data. This summer the product team is rolling out Now on Tap, a new Android feature that weaves Now into apps (and, likely soon, mobile websites). It’s search without the search bar — and, sometimes, without the query.