Google Now on Tap may not be rolling out until Android M does later this year, but that doesn’t mean that Google won’t be beefing up Google Search in the mean time.
During an event in Paris, France, Google apparently showed off a new feature of Google Search called Location Aware Search. As the name suggests, the feature allows you to ask questions of Google and have the search engine know where you are without you mentioning your location. During the demo video, the user asks questions like “What’s the name of this church?”, “When does this restaurant open?”, and “How tall is this?” and gets responses related to the places that he’s asking about.
While Google hasn’t made any official announcements about this feature, it appears to be working for some users already. It’s even apparently working for some folks outside of the US, so you may want to give the feature a try and see if it’s live for you.
You’ve been able to ask questions like “How tall is the Leaning Tower of Pisa?” and get an answer for a while now, but this new Location Aware Search feature is cool because it allows you to talk to Google more conversationally and have Google know what you’re talking about. Google is all about improving Google Search and making it more contextually aware lately, and while Location Aware Search isn’t quite the same as Now on Tap, it does give us a taste of the upcoming feature
