By Laju Iren

Not everyone follows through with their new year resolutions. However, a look at the big tech companies will reveal that some of them are taking no prisoners in 2017. Google, for example is already making big changes to secure an even bigger slice of the tech-market in this New Year.  Google owned YouTube, Android and even Google Drive now have new features.

YouTube for instance, has introduced a  new in-app messaging platform, which has been  in testing since mid-2016. Although it is only available in Canada, the built-in messaging platform, available in both the Android and iOS applications, lets users connect to one another within the app via direct messages. Analysts say that this move was inspired by YouTube’s desire to keep all the activity within its own platform, rather than losing attention to others when they want to chat about a video they just saw.

There’s nothing video-specific about the messaging platform, in fact, besides the fact that it resides within the YouTube app and can be used to easier share clips. That means it can be used for just having text conversations, as well as for sharing links to content found elsewhere.

Google is also rolling out an update for its Android app that makes it  easier to search the internet without consistent internet connection. Users can make searches when offline and the Google app will store them, delivering the results later when the devices gets signal again.

According to Google product manager, Mr. Shekhar Sharad: “So the next time you lose service, feel free to queue up your searches, put your phone away and carry on with your day. The Google app will work behind-the-scenes to detect when a connection is available again and deliver your search results once completed.”

The ailing Google drive was also not left out. The company also announced a  handful of changes for the service, including hiding “low-quality” comments by default, adding a zoom functionality for photos on the web, and bringing back its events feature — letting users create events and invite others. (Not mentioned in this recent update: the addition of machine learning to reduce image size for users, which was  announced last week.)