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The latest in Google’s steady march to reinvent search for smartphones leads with the stars.
On Friday, Google rolled out new features adding more information on music, TV and movies directly into mobile search results — and above the outbound links.
If you hunt for a musician, Google gives you a skeletal bio, links to places to hear and watch them (Google’s own apps and others), and now more granular details on the artist’s canon, i.e. song lyrics, plus upcoming live shows. For stars of the screen, Google is adding more layers of info on upcoming movies and episodes along with recommendations. Basically, that’s what Amazon’s IMDb gives you. Only IMDb is now buried deeper in search results under more detailed, interactive stuff from Google. As a reminder, the search engine has long been concerned about Amazon’s creeping power in commanding consumer search and time.
Google’s new feature is starting with Android phones and tablets. The events tab is active on Android for Taylor Swift and far smaller bands on tour (New Order!), but not yet for Adele for some reason.
Probably coming soon though. That sound you hear is dozens of picayune music lyric and local sites (and maybe some flush-with-cash ones) scrambling to promote their apps. At least you can find some music to drown out the sound!
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
