Google Offers New Personal Assistant and Music Services
By Ian Bush
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (CBS) -- Google wants to make its mark on how we listen to music, and change how we search. It launched several new services at its annual developers conference today in San Francisco.
In a challenge to Spotify and Pandora, Google is offering "All Access."
"It allows you to explore millions of tracks effortlessly on any device," says Google's Chris Yerga, "your personal library blended with ours."
Yerga (in photo) says it's a streaming music service through Google Play, for $10 per month (or a couple bucks cheaper if you start a free trial before the end of June).
"If there's something there you don't want to hear, swipe it away," he says. "You can reorder tracks in the queue. It's as 'lean back' as you want to, or interactive as you want to."
In addition, Google Plus will now analyze and choose your best vacation photos and automatically "beautify" pictures.
And, as Google's Johanna Wright demonstrated, there's Chrome voice search for desktops and laptops.
(Wright:) "OK, Google, show me things to do in Santa Cruz."
(Google:) "Here are popular attractions in Santa Cruz."
It understands pronouns and references from previous searches, so using natural language is no problem -- as long as you don't mind talking to a machine.
