Google for Colleges Starts Rolling Out on Mobile and Desktop

Almost a year after the Google for Jobs service was rolled out, tech giant Google on Tuesday announced that it is looking to help higher education seekers with the perfect college match. Starting this week, prospective students will be able to search for information on things like admissions, cost, student life, etc directly from the search results on desktop and mobile. For students looking to finance their studies, this feature will also help them with vital information on average cost, including breakdown of household income. For now, the service is limited to the US.

"For many, selecting the right college is an early and important step in preparing for the future. The process to find the right school for you, however, can be confusing. Information is scattered across the internet, and it's not always clear what factors to consider and which pieces of information will be most useful for your decision. In fact, 63 percent of recently-enrolled and prospective students say they have often felt lost when researching college or financial aid options," Jacob Schonberg, Product Manager, Google, in a blog post.

To help students get an idea of the potential of the degree that they are looking to get into, the college search feature will offer access to relevant data including graduation rates and even expected annual income after 10 years of graduation.

The information on Google Search is said to have been obtained from the US Department of Education's College Scorecard and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which is an authority on colleges that offer 4-year courses in the North American country. Add to that, Google is also working with certain non-profit organisations, education researchers, admissions professionals, and high school counsellors, and has promised future development on the same.

College search is rolling out on mobile with some features available on desktop. Google didn't detail when the college search feature would be available in countries outside of the US. Its Google for Jobs service is now available across 12 countries.