Google researching next-generation mobile information services

Google has recently studied situations where users want a piece of information but don’t think about searching for it online, in order to develop its next-generation mobile services.

According to MIT Technology Review, a group of 150 participants were prompted at random times of the day to answer the question “what did you want to know recently?”

“Maybe [these users were] asking a friend [for information rather than using Google], or they have to look up a manual to put together their Ikea furniture,” says Google experience designer Jon Wiley.

While Google isn’t releasing the results of the survey, it says the program will help it improve its mobile products and help it find cues that might suggest the sorts of information a user might want without them asking for it.

“We’ve often said the perfect search engine will provide you with exactly what you need to know at exactly the right moment, potentially without you having to ask for it,” Wiley says.

“Doing that on a mobile device is a relatively new technology, and it’s getting us better information that we really haven’t had in the past.”