The search giant Google is developing a data-friendly version of its search engine to work better on networks with slower connections, reports AndroidPolice.
The app, dubbed "Search Lite", aims to make things "faster and more data-friendly" by "supporting offline features" and being less data-intensive, the website says.
It was spotted in an Indonesian online advert, says the site, which means it could be targeted at markets with poorer mobile data connections.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to TechCrunch, the software is "essentially a modified version of the Google search app" that's "similar to the YouTube Lite app that Google launched in India last year".
But this time the market appears to be Indonesia, not India. Google told the website that: "We're always experimenting with our products with the goal of providing the most useful and optimal experience for our users. This is a new experimental app to help improve the search experience for users in Indonesia."
The tech giant is also working on a compact variant of its mobile operating system called Android Go, The Verge reports. This uses less mobile data compared to the standard version.
Android Go, along with Search and YouTube Lite, are part of Google's plans to gain more customers outside its existing markets, the site says.
It's not yet known whether the data-friendly apps will make their way to the UK, but SlashGear says the software will "probably be tested in other markets" in the near future.
-
Is the UK government getting too close to Big Tech?Today’s Big Question US-UK tech pact, supported by Nvidia and OpenAI, is part of Silicon Valley drive to ‘lock in’ American AI with US allies
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
South Korea's divide over allowing Google MapsTalking Points The country is one of few modern democracies where the app doesn't work
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust rulingSpeed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Is AI killing the internet?Talking Point AI-powered browsers and search engines are threatening the death of the open web
-
Unreal: A quantum leap in AI videoFeature Google's new Veo 3 is making it harder to distinguish between real videos and AI-generated ones
-
Google's new AI Mode feature hints at the next era of searchIn the Spotlight The search giant is going all in on AI, much to the chagrin of the rest of the web
-
Is Apple breaking up with Google?Today's Big Question Google is the default search engine in the Safari browser. The emergence of artificial intelligence could change that.
