Google showcases India's mobile-focused demos at Google House event

At the Google House event yesterday, the company showcased latest product innovations for the country’s ‘mobile first’ world. The event featured demonstrations of Google’s Search, Maps, Photos, Translate and YouTube apps along with appearances from celebrities such as  celebrity chef Kunal Kapur, fashion photographer Dabboo Ratnani and Anushka Menon and YouTube comedic sensation Karan Talwar. Sandeep Menon, Google Country Marketing Director stated, “Indians are coming online from mobile devices at an incredibly rapid rate — six to seven million new mobile internet users every month. Today’s event is about showcasing how we’re working to make our products relevant and useful for India, and how smartphones have evolved to become the best personal assistant you’ve never had. Whether you need to get directions 10 minutes before your next meeting, a step by step recipe to make an impression, or a way to never be late to the airport again, Google can help keep you connected to the people and information that you care about.” In addition, the company has also been working on a seamless Voice Search experience that allows users to search by speaking a query into the phone, instead of typing it out. Google Voice search has been optimised for English in the Hindi accent, as well as in Hindi. To access this feature, users will need to tap on the microphone icon on Google search bar and ask out the query. Users will then seethe spoken words transcribed automatically and searched for in Google too. Adding boost to the YouTube creator community, Google India also announced at the event that YouTube has partnered with one of Asia’s largest and most renowned film schools, Whistling Woods International, to set up a new YouTube Space in Mumbai. Some of the other highlights from the Google House event included a hands-on showcase of the new instant translation feature in Google Translate. Recently launched in Hindi, instant translate helps you break through language barriers by instantly translating printed text, like street signs or ingredient lists by opening the app on your phone and pointing your camera at the text. The new Google Photos app was also showcased which focuses to automatically back up photos and videos across all devices. With people around the world uploading roughly 1.8 billion photos every day along with  93 million selfies and more photos being taken every two minutes, it’s a good thing that Google Photos offers unlimited free storage. At the event, an overview of the recent Search innovations for showcased, such as faster and lighter search results for people accessing the web from a mobile device with a slow connection like 2G. It was pointed out that Voice Search updates to the Google app has been optimised for English in the Indian accent and in Hindi to make finding answers to questions faster, easier and more local. An overview of recent offline features presented at the event included the ability to save Maps for times when one might not have a connection along with YouTube Offline, which gives a way to watch videos without chewing through all the mobile data, even in times when users do not have a connection.