This week, we’re talking about how to save money online with the help of a new feature from one of America’s favorite search engines- Google. It’s called “Price Action.” And it can make all the difference in saving money when you do your shopping.
What is price action?
Price action means watching to see if a product or service goes up or down in cost as other people buy or sell it. For example, say you are looking for a new pair of shoes. You find a shoe store that has them at $50 but they are sold out.
You decide to check whether there are any listings on Amazon for the same shoes. That site will compare prices across sellers and log what products buyers have received and under what conditions (be it a color change or loss of quality).
By tracking this information, Amazon and others have built an algorithm that predicts if a sale is happening and where the best deal can be found.
This tool was made popular by sites like Zappos, Best Buy, and Amazon, so most people know it well. But now, these big companies have partnered together to create their own version of the tool!
It’s called Price Action and it works exactly the same way. Only instead of comparing sales at a single website, it does it among all the websites owned by the partners.
PriceAction comes standard on both Chrome and Firefox.
Google is changing how we work
The way we work has changed dramatically in recent years with the explosion of technology, including smartphones that make it easy to access tools at any time and anywhere.
Now, instead of sending an email from your phone or computer, you can create an account online for WorkMail (formerly Gmail) and use that to send and receive messages more efficiently.
You can also set up quick responses via Google Chat and add photos and other media using Google Photos and Slack, respectively.
Google is changing how we learn
With every new search engine, social network platform, and smartphone operating system that’s been launched over the past few years, one thing has become clear: Online content is king.
Content creators are no longer needed to create original written materials; instead, they can just upload all of their writing onto websites or apps, and then it’s out there for people to access and read (provided, of course, that you earn enough revenue from ads to pay your bills).
The most popular website in the world makes this even more apparent. You see references to this all the time: “Reading is better than watching TV,” “Learning through experiences is much more effective than learning via lectures only,” and my personal favorite, “If someone paid you to watch sports, what games would you choose to watch?”
So why not make reading and studying as easy as choosing from among these various forms of entertainment? After all, if companies were paying us to read, what books would we pick up?
This is where things get interesting.
By analyzing our online activity, technology companies have learned a lot about who loves to read and which genres appeal the most to different individuals. They use this information to compile lists of bestseller fiction and nonfiction titles so that you can easily find something you will enjoy.
Google is changing how we travel
It’s hard to remember the last time you didn’t use your phone for something other than making calls, sending texts, and looking up things online. With all of that information at our fingertips, it makes sense that most people now rely on their phones for everything else too.
When I was in high school, using my parent’s house as an extension of my bedroom meant keeping my lights off, or putting them on “sleep mode.” These days, though, there are so many ways to connect with friends, family, and colleagues outside of typical landline calls and SMS messages.
I think one of the main reasons why we have such a strong habit of relying on mobile technology is because it gives us instant gratification. When we wake up in the morning and check our phones, we see that we had some new notifications and stories from the night before.
It also helps us keep connected with others by posting pictures and comments about what we’re doing- even if they’re just to show ourselves how well we’re doing. Technology has become part of everyday life to the extent that we forget just how much power it actually holds.
Google is changing how we buy things
Every new feature, device, or service that Google offers, it almost always starts with someone else’s idea as inspiration.
With their latest offering, there have been many comparisons to Amazon – the online shopping site. Both offer users a platform to search for, compare, and purchase products easily.
But while most people associate Amazon with its fast shipping and unbeatable customer experience, it was actually founded in 1998! That makes it older than some of the companies it resembles more recently.
Google launched its own store back in 2010, but it wasn’t until late 2018 that it made it official. Since then, it has gathered momentum, helping them overtake Microsoft’s similar product as the number one online shopping destination.
Google is changing how we read
The way you use Google now has an effect on the company that owns it – and they’re getting more powerful as time goes on.
Google, the search engine giant, just released its first-ever literary work- “The Things They Carried” by Svetlana Alexievich. It’s her collection of short stories about life during the second world war in what she calls the ‘Evil Empire’ — Germany.
But this isn’t your average book launch. This event was live-streamed, and there have been over 2 million views so far!
This comes after reports earlier this year when Google announced it would be investing $1 billion to create new literacy programs focused on teaching children between the ages of 6 and 9 how to read using only books and pictures.
It’s called Project Read, and it will focus on low-income kids who may not otherwise get access to reading material.
Now, with these two announcements, it seems like people are paying attention to how influential big tech companies become.
And while some worry about whether or not their personal information is being collected, others feel like today‘s technology makes us closer than ever before.
Google is changing how we eat
With all of the talk about wellness, healthful eating, and diet trends, it seems like every company has a product or service that promotes such concepts.
Mostly though, these diets are just gimmicks to make money off of you. That’s why I don’t think too much of what companies say about nutritionism being in fashion.
I read an interview with one of the main people behind the “keto flu” myth — something called The Ketogenic Diet – where she said most keto followers don’t actually follow the diet because they’re not buying into the Keto Fad Product X!
That kind of thing really takes away from the effectiveness of the diet. It also contributes to the obesity epidemic we have today. People aren’t learning about balanced diets because there’s nothing truly afford to buy them.
Google Trends data confirms that interest in the term ‘diet’ is declining (it’s been steadily falling since 2011), while the terms ‘weight loss and ‘lose weight’ are rising.
We’re living in a period when fewer and fewer people feel confident in their ability to feed themselves well, let alone educate others on doing so.
It’s time for a shift. It’s time to move beyond educating individuals about nutritional basics and moving on to more holistic approaches to health.
Google is changing how we sleep
Have you ever noticed that after sleeping well, you feel more awake and energetic? You might also have heard of people who claim they cannot go to bed without watching some TV or listening to music. Others say they wake up too early in the morning and can’t fall asleep, so they start staying up later to try and drop off at night.
There are many reasons why someone may be unable to get a good night’s rest, but one of the most common causes is stress. A lot of things cause stress- work, family, financial issues, and health problems. All of these factors influence your body’s ability to relax and put itself back into a state where it can sleep.
When you’re stressed out, your brain produces a chemical called cortisol which raises your blood pressure and makes it harder to relax. Since sleep is dependent upon relaxation, not relaxing can prevent you from getting enough sleep.
Stress also affects our appetite; people who are under stress may eat more than their normal selves due to anxiety about money or hunger. This can make them want to stay awake because they aren’t hungry enough to force themselves to sleep.
Some studies suggest that eating before bedtime can actually keep you awake.
Google is changing how we exercise
More and more people are choosing to live active lives, which is great because studies show that activity helps us feel happier and healthier.
Activity can be anything from going for a short walk every day to taking up swimming or tennis once a week. It doesn’t need to be for longer than 30 minutes either.
You don’t have to be an expert at an activity to enjoy it, but the less experienced you are the better. Starting with something simple will help you meet your goals!
Google knows all about getting people moving. They designed their popular app, Fitbit, to track what activities you do and how many days you completed your goal of walking 10,000 steps per day.
This way you can connect what you’re already doing well to create even bigger changes. By using apps like Fitbit, you’ll find out just how much time you spend sitting each day and make needed changes by trying to reduce this in your daily life.
