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Google Debuts 'Gboard' Keyboard for iPhone With Built-In Search Functionality

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Google today announced "Gboard," a new third-party keyboard application for iOS devices that directly integrates the company's search capabilities into an iPhone or iPad's keyboard. With the new Google button in Gboard, users can search for information, send what they find, discover GIFs, emojis, and more, without having to exit a messenger app to visit Safari or Chrome.


In its blog post, the company gives an example of someone needing to look up the address of a restaurant, normally forcing them to leave the app, perform a search in a mobile web browser, copy the address information, return to Messages, paste it, then send it off. With Gboard, Google hopes to streamline that process into a headache-free card system built around the smaller UI space required of third-party keyboards.
With Gboard, you can search and send all kinds of things--restaurant info, flight times, news articles--right from your keyboard. Anything you'd search on Google, you can search with Gboard. Results appear as cards with the key information front and center, such as the phone number, ratings and hours. With one tap, you can send it to your friend and you keep the conversation going.
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In addition to the basic search feature, Gboard lets users search for emojis -- unlike Apple's first-party keyboard -- by typing in key words like "dancer" to find the corresponding character. There's also a section that lets users browse and search for GIFs, and even glide typing for those who prefer sliding to text instead of tapping each key.

Google mentioned that Gboard "works in any app" with a keyboard, although it's available only in English within the United States at launch, with more languages planned soon. Those interested can download it from the App Store today for free. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Google Debuts 'Gboard' Keyboard for iPhone With Built-In Search Functionality
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/05/12/google-launches-gboard-keyboard/
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macintoshmac said:
Don't fire me for being sceptical, but are we sure that google won't be able to log keystrokes and searches and get into our data somehow? The ONLY thing I use Google for now is search. I don't trust Google.
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Do you use Facebook, or freemium games at all? They collect your data as much if not more then Google does.

As for this keyboard, meh, I find Apples own keyboard is the best if any mobile device! Android still lags a lot in this area and I would imagine so will this new Google one.
 
The idea is great, and very tempting, but I don't quite like that idea that google will have access to everything I type.
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apolloa said:
Do you use Facebook, or freemium games at all? They collect your data as much if not more then Google does.

As for this keyboard, meh, I find Apples own keyboard is the best if any mobile device! Android still lags a lot in this area and I would imagine so will this new Google one.
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I do not use Facebook. Waste of time as much as I am concerned. Freemium games, well, only on iOS and well, what data can they collect? I am not aware of the kind of data that those games could mine.
 
I'm rather hesitant to grant Google full access to my keyboard. Does anyone know of any third parties that verify the security of things like this by sniffing packets or whatever? Because now that I've seen this, I'm not sure that I can be without it. This would save so much time that I simply can't believe it hasn't been done before. This is some solid design. I just hope the keyboard isn't as buggy as most iOS keyboards, which is likely an iOS issue.
 
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macintoshmac said:
Don't fire me for being sceptical, but are we sure that google won't be able to log keystrokes and searches and get into our data somehow? The ONLY thing I use Google for now is search. I don't trust Google.
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I keep reading your quote trying to make sense of it. You use Google for search. Why would Google need to key log you to find out what you're searching when you're using Google to... search. You don't trust Google, but you use them for the one they want you use.

Confusing. What is it you don't trust or are you just parroting the "privacy" meme without actually understanding the issue?

edit: PSA - Gboard. For those concerned about privacy issues, here's the relevant info about what Gboard actually does:

Privacy

We know the things you type on your phone are personal, so we've designed Gboard to keep your private info private.

What Gboard sends to Google:

  • Gboard sends your searches to Google's web servers to give you search results.
  • Gboard also sends anonymous statistics to Google to help us understand problems when the app crashes and to let us know which features are used most often.
What Gboard doesn't send to Google:

  • Other than your searches, Gboard doesn't send anything you type to Google. Gboard will remember words you type to help you with spelling or to predict searches you might be interested in, but this data is stored only on your device. This data can't be accessed by Google or by any apps other than Gboard.
Info is right in the description of the app. I'm pretty sure Apple looked at the app 6 ways to Sunday to verify it.
 
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69Mustang said:
I keep reading your quote trying to make sense of it. You use Google for search. Why would Google need to key log you to find out what you're searching when you're using Google to... search. You don't trust Google, but you use them for the one they want you use.

Confusing. What is it you don't trust or are you just parroting the "privacy" meme without actually understanding the issue?
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I do not use Google's other products. Not Gmail, not Docs, not Drive, not Google+. I only use search and I don't care if they know what I search. My other data is safe. My emails are safe from their eyes.Privacy to me is having control over what do you allow others to know about you, that's it. Tell me if I am wrong and just offending you with mindless "parroting" as you call it.
 
I downloaded it, got to the part where it asks to grant full access where it then says Google will have access to any thing I type, and anything that was previously typed on the native keyboard, such as credit card numbers, passwords, etc. Then I deleted it.
 
"Voilà, Here is the Google Keyboard for the iOS. This is for sure going to make our jobs of data-mining way easier than we thought. We now know each and every word you type and search for. No Escaping guys. "

images
 
macintoshmac said:
Don't fire me for being sceptical, but are we sure that google won't be able to log keystrokes and searches and get into our data somehow? The ONLY thing I use Google for now is search. I don't trust Google.
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Honestly I don't think you're being sceptical at all. To the best of my knowledge, there's nothing preventing 3rd party keyboards sending data off to their servers, once they've been granted full access in iOS. If I'm completely wrong about this, please do correct me. :)
 
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macintoshmac said:
Don't fire me for being sceptical, but are we sure that google won't be able to log keystrokes and searches and get into our data somehow? The ONLY thing I use Google for now is search. I don't trust Google.
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Why on earth would you use Google's crappy search engine?

DuckDuckGo.com

There's no going back. (If that url is too long, you can also use ddg.gg. It's one of the search engines you can pick from in Safari and IE. It's the default in Firefox. Adding it to Chrome takes ~60 seconds... not quite as easy as just picking it from a dropdown in Safari and IE, but you just visit DuckDuckGo.com with Chrome and they'll have directions for how to make it your search engine in Chrome.)
 
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batting1000 said:
You people are way too paranoid.

Just typed this response with the keyboard and it's actually really good.
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I might try it out on my iPhone. Did you test it on your iPhone, or on your Air 2?

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ArtOfWarfare said:
Why on earth would you use Google's crappy search engine?

DuckDuckGo.com

There's no going back.
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Wish this was true. I changed to DDG on both iOS and OS X. Unfortunately it just ... doesn't find what I'm looking for most of the time. I kept switching back to a Google search so often, I shrugged and just changed back.
 
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