Google Streams Apps to Android Phones

Google begins streaming apps to Android phones so people can make use of them without   installing on their phones.

The firm said it introduced this technology to assist people get better results when searching.

It said in a blogpost, the best answers to a search query were discovered in an app several times than a web page.

For a start nine apps were selected to work with the streaming system as it is been tested.

Not so good experience

Jennifer Lin, Google engineering manager, said the firm began indexing data found in apps two years ago to strengthen its larger piles of search data.

Around 40% of searches done via Google now bring up content found in apps like Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb or Pinterest.

Until recently, Google only answers queries with information available from on the web and in apps. Now,  it is began showing results found only in apps.

A GOOD example of these results would come up when someone is looking for hotels during a trip to an unknown place or city, wrote Ms Lin in the blog.

Google said it was using an in-house made streaming system to allow people access to results in apps which is not installed on their Android phones.

This makes people try the app and use it as if it were installed, said Ms Lin. An experimental cloud-based virtualisation technology Google developed powers this streaming system.

Apps from HotelTonight, Useful Knots, Daily Horoscope and Gormey were among the first made available via streaming.

Danny Sullivan, founding editor of the Search Engine Land news site, said the streaming system made a lot of information that was hard to get easily visible.

"It's no a good experience to bring up links to an app,nobody can view unless they install the app," he said.

In-addition, he said, this means that data found in apps were now more easily available and could be used for other purposes.

"Alternatively, this system can make certain apps that may appear to lack linkable content, such as games, to revert to app-only links," he wrote.

Streamed versions of apps can be found through Google's own app and its Chrome browser. Users must also use a fast internet connection and  use a handset running Android Lollipop or a later version. Lollipop was launched in November 2014.

The test drive of the app streaming and search service is now taking place in the US. Google has not mention when  it will be launched  in other parts of the world.