Skip to main content

Google wants to make it easier for you to find your dream job

nfc smart unlock
Image used with permission by copyright holder
In the modern age, when there is something we need to know, we Google it — it is a one-stop shop for everything from how to cook the perfect scrambled eggs to last weekend’s football results. Now, a new update to the search engine might mean that you find your next job using the service, too.

Google will now pull job listings from various sources across the internet and present them to the user within the search interface. This functionality was first detailed at the company’s I/O conference in May.

Recommended Videos

Users will be able to use natural search terms like “jobs near me” and “teaching jobs” to find work, according to a report from Engadget. Their results will be offered up in a clean, information-rich interface that is packed with all the most relevant information, streamlining the ever-frustrating job hunt process.

Jobs are listed alongside their location, the site that the role has been advertised on, and how long it has been since the posting went live. There is also an icon that states whether the work is full-time or part-time and, where possible, there is an estimate of how long the user’s commute will take.

The service also integrates Google Alerts functionality to make sure that job hunters do not need to run a search every day to avoid missing out on the perfect role. Users can tie an alert to a particular search, so that they will receive an email notification whenever new jobs are added to the results.

In a post published on the Google Blog on Thursday, product manager Nick Zakrasek explains how the company is collaborating with some of the biggest job listing sites around to perfect this new service. Monster, LinkedIn, WayUp, DirectEmployers, CareerBuilder, Glassdoor, and Facebook are already on board.

“Monster is actively focused on helping candidates connect with the right job opportunities — faster and easier,” said Monster’s chief technology officer, Conal Thompson. “Our alliance with Google supports our ongoing efforts to reach more candidates wherever they are.”

Google will continue to expand the range of job listings included in this service over time. The company has already published open documentation intended to help job boards and direct employers alike make their openings visible via search results.

Brad Jones
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…
Google Gemini is good, but this update could make it downright sci-fi
Google Gemini running on an Android phone.

Ever since seeing the "Welcome home, sir" scene in Iron Man 2, many of us have wanted a smart setup with a Jarvis-like assistant. While some may have hoped that Alexa would provide that kind of functionality, so far, the assistant is just too limited. That might change with the launch of Gemini 2.0 and Google's Project Jarvis, though.

In a sense, this new project is Jarvis. The system works by taking stills of your screen and interpreting the information on it, including text, images, and even sound. It can auto-fill forms or press buttons for you, too. This project was first hinted at during Google I/O 2024, and according to 9to5Google, it's designed to automate web-based tasks. Jarvis is an AI agent with a narrower focus than a language learning model like ChatGPT — an AI that demonstrates human-like powers of reasoning, planning, and memory.

Read more
Your Google TV can now control smart home devices
The Home Panel on Google TV Streamer.

In late September, Google announced a new feature for Google TV called the Home Panel that would make it easier to control all of your (compatible) smart home devices from a single location. The feature first appeared on the Google TV Streamer and then later on Chromecast, but it has now rolled out to Google TVs from other companies including Hisense, TCL, and others.

The Home Panel offers a lot of utility. It shows your lights' current brightness level, the volume level of speakers, and even live streams from security cameras. The demo video Google has on its blog shows that the user can even adjust the thermostat. All of this is done through the remote, so you don't even have to get up off the couch.

Read more
This new Google Docs feature is exactly what I’ve always wanted
Text box in Google Docs on a laptop.

As a writer of a certain age, I've lived a lot of life in Google Docs. It's where my first drafts go, but it's also where my crazy ideas, unhinged brainstorming, and research dumps go. 
There’s so many conveniences about Google Docs that make it my go-to for word processing, but let’s be honest: It’s still fairly barebones, especially when it comes to organizing and managing different files within Google Drive. But this new feature makes all of that much easier, keeping it all contained all within Docs itself.
It’s called Document Tabs, which you may have already noticed floating just to the left of your document.

The idea is simple: It lets you create multiple documents within a single Docs file. Create as many “tabs” or separate documents as a single project might need, and switch between them extremely fast. That accessibility to them is really where the gold is. No more switching between different browser tabs.
It’s even more handy on mobile, of course, where switching applications or tabs is even more cumbersome. Here, you’ll find Document Tabs hovering just at the bottom of the screen with some simple arrows to flip between your different tabs. All we need now is a simple gesture to be added to flip between them even more seamlessly.
Document Tabs takes the place of the old outlining system, which would grab headers and automatically create a table of contents around them. I used this frequently, but it was pretty finicky. More than that, it resulted in overly long documents that I still found myself scrolling through. 
Document Tabs is a really elegant solution to that problem. Whether it’s segmenting chapters in a book, multiple aspects of a project, or even just different parts of an article, it’s already become an extremely useful outlining and productivity tool for me.
It even had a pretty clean way of converting the tabs when you need to export. All the tabs do is combine down into one document, but they’re sectioned off with titles and some basic formatting. That’s not going to be ideal in every situation, of course, so it’s something to keep in mind if you need to export and share it with someone outside of Docs.
At the very least, though, it’s worth trying out. And if you’re a Google Docs fiend like I am, I have a feeling you’ll get quite a lot out of it.

Read more