Author Archives: Aparna Chennapragada

Find trending products on the Google Shopping Gift Guide

What do you buy for the techie who has everything? Or the chef who’s always trying new recipes? Turn to the Google Shopping Gift Guide for inspiration. It has great finds for everyone on your list and uses U.S. Search trends to predict December’s most popular products.

For that person in your life

We’ve identified trending product categories over the past few months, and translated them into gift lists for the people in your life. Searches for cookware rose 34 percent since last year, as more people cooked at home, so we’ve gathered the top trending kitchen products for your favorite amateur chef. At the top of the list: the Mr. Coffee Iced Coffee Maker, closely followed by the Ninja Foodi Digital Air Fry Oven. 

And the Google Shopping Gift Guide is not just for the chefs—you’ll find trending gifts for athletes, techies, decorators, wellness gurus, gamers and kids.

Google Shopping Gift Guide

Find the best prices and places to buy

Once you’ve found that perfect gift, continue shopping on Google where you can find the best prices and places to buy.  

With thousands of stores in one place, you can find what you’re looking for, online or nearby. Nearby store listings show store hours and stock alerts, so you don’t waste a trip. And, if you’d rather keep those trips quick, you can see which stores offer in-store or curbside pickup.

Price insights show whether the price offered for a product is high, low or typical, compared to other prices across the web and in nearby stores. If you’re not ready to buy, you can switch on price tracking and get an alert if the price drops.

Price insights on Google shopping

With the Google Shopping Gift Guide and other shopping tools on Google, we hope you find the perfect gifts—and maybe something for yourself too!

Shop early for the best holiday deals online and nearby

Black Friday typically has the biggest deals of the season. But this year, holiday shopping is starting earlier than usual. With safety top of mind, retailers have moved away from typical doorbuster events and are beginning to promote their discounts online. Shoppers are starting earlier too: searches for“early deals” in the U.S. have increased significantly over the last month. 

To help you take advantage of these deals in online and local stores, we’re sharing some new and revamped features on Google Shopping in the U.S.—including price insights, price comparison and price tracking. And if you’re looking for additional ways to shop safely from stores in your community, check out our previous post from September to see how Google can help.


Know whether you’ve found a good price

Everyone loves finding a good deal, but it can be difficult to know how “good” that deal really is. Starting today, you can quickly see whether the price offered for an item is high, low or typical, compared to other prices from across the web and in nearby stores. Just search on Google and hop over to the Shopping tab. Then, select your favorite product to land on the Shopping product page, where you’ll find these new price insights.

Animation showing price insights on Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1

Easily compare prices and shipping options 

From the same page, you can also view various price and purchasing options from a range of stores, with both online and local options listed for easy comparison. Over the next few days, you’ll see curbside and in-store pickup annotations as well. 

Animation showing a product page including compare prices and more locations tabs

Track prices to get notifications for future deals

Too early to make your purchase or didn’t find the deal you’re looking for? You can turn on price tracking from Shopping product pages to receive alerts for price drops on any products you’re considering. Just make sure you’re signed into your Google account and you’ll receive notifications through email or on the Google Search app. To see all the products you’re tracking or to unsubscribe from alerts, just head to your Google account and go to My Activity.

Animation showing price tracking

We hope these tools will help you get a jumpstart on your shopping, so you can find all the best gifts, prices, and places to buy.

Visual ways to search and understand our world

Whether you’re a student learning about photosynthesis or a parent researching the best cars for your growing family, people turn to Google with all sorts of curiosities. And we can help you understand in different ways—through text, your voice or even your phone’s camera. Today, as part of the SearchOn event, we’re announcing new ways you can use Google Lens and augmented reality (AR) while learning and shopping.

Visual tools to help you learn 

For many families, adjusting to remote learning hasn’t been easy, but tools like Google Lens can help lighten the load. With Lens, you can search what you see using your camera. Lens can now recognize 15 billion things—up from 1 billion just two years ago—to help you identify plants, animals, landmarks and more. If you’re learning a new language, Lens can also translate more than 100 languages, such as Spanish and Arabic, and you can tap to hear words and sentences pronounced out loud


If you’re a parent, your kids may ask you questions about things you never thought you’d need to remember, like quadratic equations. From the search bar in the Google app on Android and iOS, you can use Lens to get help on a homework problem. With step-by-step guides and videos, you can learn and understand the foundational concepts to solve math, chemistry, biology and physics problems.

Lens Homework

Sometimes, seeing is understanding. For instance, visualizing the inner workings of a plant cell or the elements in the periodic table in 3D is more helpful than reading about them in a textbook. AR brings hands-on learning home, letting you explore concepts up close in your space. Here’s how Melissa Brophy-Plasencio, an educator from Texas, is incorporating AR into her lesson plans.

Melissa Brophy-Plasencio, an educator from Texas, shares how she's using AR into her science lessons.

Shop what you see with Google Lens 

Another area where the camera can be helpful is shopping—especially when what you’re looking for is hard to describe in words. With Lens, you can already search for a product by taking a photo or screenshot. Now, we’re making it even easier to discover new products as you browse online on your phone. When you tap and hold an image on the Google app or Chrome on Android, Lens will find the exact or similar items, and suggest ways to style it. This feature is coming soon to the Google app on iOS.

Lens Shopping

Lens uses Style Engine technology which combines the world’s largest database of products with millions of style images. Then, it pattern matches to understand concepts like “ruffle sleeves” or “vintage denim” and how they pair with different apparel. 

Bring the showroom to you with AR

When you can’t go into stores to check out a product up close, AR can bring the showroom to you. If you’re in the market for a new car, for example, you’ll soon be able to search for it on Google and see an AR model right in front of you. You can easily check out what the car looks like in different colors, zoom in to see intricate details like buttons on the dashboard, view it against beautiful backdrops and even see it in your driveway. We’re experimenting with this feature in the U.S. and working with top auto brands, such as Volvo and Porsche, to bring these experiences to you soon.

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AR experience of the 2020 Volvo XC40 Recharge

Everyone’s journey to understand is different. Whether you snap a photo with Lens or immerse yourself in AR, we hope you find what you’re looking for...

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...and even have some fun along the way.

Source: Search