Kerry Gallivan demonstrates his Chimani app while standing atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. (Photo/Kevin Bennett)
Google on Wednesday announced some big news. Going forward a Google search will be able to turn up more than just web content. It will also return in-app content in your search results.
But, at least for now, Google has only tapped a few mobile apps with which to launch the new feature, including Portland’s own Chimani, a five-year-old company that’s building a series of free mobile apps for national parks and other outdoor destinations.
Chimani is one of nine exclusive launch partners for Google’s new App First Indexing technology. Chimani, which got a shout-out at Google I/O in June, has been working with Google on the launch for several months, according to Kerry Gallivan, Chimani’s CEO and co-founder.
“Visitors to national parks have fewer available printed resources; now they can access Chimani’s rich content just by doing a simple Google search, which ultimately helps ensure the best experience possible,” Gallivan said.
In partnership with Chimani, Google has indexed more than 25,000 points of interest and events related to national parks and other outdoor attractions, according to the company.
“The Google API for app indexing was incredibly quick and easy to implement,” Chimani CTO and co-founder Shaun Meredith said in a statement. “Google was very responsive and showed extreme flexibility in incorporating our feedback.”
Not only will the search results display in-app content, but a user will be able to “stream” those apps even if they haven’t downloaded the app onto their mobile phone or tablet. Check out this TechCrunch article for more about Google’s new technology and how it works.
Here’s how the Chimani’s content will show up in Google search results:
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