We may dislike the power wielded by Google, but we need to appreciate their focus on continuously improving their core offering – the Google Search. Yes, they risk losing their billions of dollars of advertising revenue that comes from search ads if they don’t do it, still, I will give this one to them.
With the rise of streaming services for Movies and TV shows, while it is convenient to watch what we want, it has become a pain with the balkanization of content. I have subscribed to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hotstar India (they offer the collections from Star, Fox, HBO, NGO and others). Every time I look for a title to watch, I have to individually search in each of the apps (or websites) – the promise by Google and Apple to offer a unified search on their respective platforms (Pixel, Android TV and iOS) across all the apps (Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar and the likes of Eros Now) installed in the device has never materialised.
I found a service called GoWatchIt that tells where to watch a film across services, but it is meant for the American market, and most of the titles it lists under Netflix are not available in Netflix India due to licensing. In this regard, a few days ago I was surprised to find the default Google search automatically listing results from the catalogues of Netflix India and Hotstar. It works on both the Desktop (PC and Mac) and Mobile (Android and iOS).
As seen on a PC – Google Search in India now includes results from Netflix and Hotstar
As seen on mobile – Google Search in India now includes results from Hotstar (on the left) and Netflix (on the right)
Currently, I didn’t find results from Amazon Prime Video or Eros Now or MX Player, maybe they will be adding them soon.
Amazon Prime Video catalogue is not yet indexed by Google Search in India
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