Google can now stream apps to your phone, search more mobile app content

Google's search results have included information from inside of apps for a couple years now, but Google has only ever been able to show those results if you have the app installed or if the app has a website, too. But now Google has another way: stream the entire app to your phone. Google announced that it's beginning to test a feature that will stream apps to Android phones when someone finds a result from them through Search. If you're searching for hotel bookings, for instance, a search result from HotelTonight might appear. Because HotelTonight doesn't let you book through its website, Google will stream the HotelTonight app, allowing you to tap through it to explore listings and make a booking. Streaming HotelTonight went smoothly in a brief test, although it responded a bit slower than a native app. Google says it's planning to expand the program; it's an important initiative -- Google Search is a critical tool for the web, but apps, which increasingly hold information that isn't available elsewhere, haven't been as visible to Google.

Google is looking to maintain its search hegemony as users shift en masse to mobile devices. Instead of crawling the Web to give consumers answers to search queries, Google must increasingly navigate apps where users spend the bulk of their time.