14 DAY TRIAL // In addition to receiving a much predictable doodle featuring football graphics (soccer for our American friends), Google Search on iPhone and iPad is getting ready for the World Cup with Google Now cards that keep you updated on every single match.
According to a blog post by the search giant, “you don't even have to search to get updates on your favorite teams—just open Google Now. You'll be given an option to start seeing cards with stats about each match that you can tap for more detail.”
You can tap on cards to get details like scorers, match statistics, group standings, and more.
“Make sure that you are signed in to Google, and have your Google Now turned on in your settings. Swipe up to see your Google Now cards and follow your favourite team,” says the search giant.
The updated Google Search 4.1.0 app for iOS also packs small fixes on logging in and for crashes.
Google also announced the expansion of a feature inside its Wallet app – Instant Buy – to third-party merchants. iOS developers living in the U.S. can integrate the Instant Buy API in their apps to streamline the checkout experience.
“Typing shipping and billing information on mobile devices can be a difficult experience, which is one of the reasons why 97% of mobile shoppers abandon their shopping carts,” Google explains in a separate post.
“We introduced Google Wallet Instant Buy to make checkout on mobile sites and Android apps easier and help shoppers speed through the purchase process – often in as few as two clicks.”
Sellers can take advantage of this feature thanks to integration with existing payment processors, secure payments with 24/7 fraud monitoring, and no extra fees.
Google has been working with a few payment processors, including B&H, Eat24, Fancy, Newegg, Sionic Mobile, and Wish, to integrate Instant Buy and test out its benefits. All developers are welcome to sign up starting today.
“Developers can now review the Instant Buy iOS SDK documentation and integration process. Integrating is fast and easy, with most merchants finishing the process in less than a week,” according to the Mountain View web giant.
Google offers a tutorial that guides developers through integrating Instant Buy into a purchase flow. An example bike store is offered for context, and the tutorial provides complete source code to help developers complete the integration steps to be able to reproduce a flow as depicted in the process flow diagram.