Giving Compass' Take:

· Similar to the job search feature presented last year, EdSurge reports that Google is releasing a college search tool that will provide information about admissions, student life and costs for 4-year U.S. universities. 

· Will this tool help young individuals make better informed college decisions? 

· Read about an app designed to help high schoolers pick the right college.

Per a recent announcement, Google is entering the college search space. In a blog post, the tech company announced a new search feature where students can type the name of 4-year U.S. colleges and universities and get information regarding “admissions, cost, student life and more.”

In an email, Google product manager Jacob Schonberg tells EdSurge that this move builds on Google’s existing work around education information. Specifically, he references the federal government’s College Scorecard, which Google’s technology helped support.

Schonberg also points to the job search feature his company announced last year, designed to aggregate and display job postings on the first page of search results. “We began to look at other ways we could have further impact and help connect users to new opportunities,” explains Schonberg of Google’s decision to expand to college search. “We identified information about education as a critical part of the long term path to success.”

Schonberg writes that the data and information Google is using is being “predominantly sourced from the most current data available from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.” Information will be updated as new data is available.

“Other content, such as photos of the school, are surfaced from Search and may change over time, as Search is dynamic,” he writes.

Read the full article about Google's college search tool by Tina Nazerian at EdSurge.