It looks Google is making it more and more difficult to lead a disorganized life with recent news confirming Google Now will notifiy of impending due dates.
Google has always been one of the biggest convenience of the web. By crawling and indexing the surface of the internet, Google has made web browsing accessible to anyone that can access a computer. Additional services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and almost anything else Google does adds massive convenience to every day life.
Google Now is one of the newer Google initiatives and it is the logical extension of Google’s data services. Google doesn’t only crawl the surface web, now. The search giant also crawls and indexes any Google services you use in order to provide updates, notifications, and reminders and presents you with information before you need to seek it out yourself.
Google Now doesn’t only provide calendar reminders and weather updates, though. One of the bigger chunks of data Google Now uses comes from your Gmail account. If someone includes an address in an email or Ebay sends you a tracking number for a package, Google will see that information in your Gmail and turn it into a card within the Google Now application.
It was recently rumored that Google Now would begin crawling Gmail for bill due dates as well, and that rumor has now been confirmed by Android Police. Just like how Google Now knows when you order a package from Ebay it will know when you have bills due.
Obviously this feature depends on you having paperless billing enabled. Google is only able to read information that is in your Gmail account, so if you receive a paper bill, then you won’t get a notification on your phone as well.
This is also dependent on cooperation with the companies to which the bills are owed. Shortly after Google Now started giving delivery notifications, Amazon removed tracking numbers from their confirmation emails, requiring users to go directly to Amazon to get shipping updates. Amazon is a Google competitor with their Kindle family, so it remains to be seen if American Express or Comcast will pull a similar stunt.
Not everyone is comfortable with their information being indexed and used in the way it is for Google. While there are definitely privacy concerns, that’s not stopping most people from taking advantage of the convenience of Google’s various services and likely won’t be a major deterrent in this case either.
Source: Android Police
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