Google Wallet teams up with ChowNow to provide easier online ordering for restaurants across the US

After an update to the Android app on Friday brought both Maps integration and keyword search, Google Wallet continues its expansion across the US with ChowNow partnership. ChowNow is an online ordering platform for small businesses that provides convenient to-go orders and marketing for independent mom-n-pop restaurants.

Starting today, all of ChowNow’s clients — which include thousands of restaurants across the US — will now accept Google Wallet at checkout. When buying online from a restaurant with ChowNow, you’ll run into the “Buy with Google” button on their site and with a single tap, you can on your way to bringing some kickin’ kung pow chicken home for dinner. Because really, nobody likes manually punching in their credit card info.

While it’s sure a thousand restaurants around the US may not sound like much, but it’s a small step into making our lives easier and more convenient. At this point, we’ll take whatever we can get.

[ChowNow]

Google just made it easier than ever to get food delivered straight to your door

We’ve watched as Google has consistently updated their app in recent weeks, adding features like 3rd party voice actions, and even Star Wars trivia. Today, Google announced yet another feature making its way to the search/do everything engine: the ability to order food directly from their search results.

Getting food delivered to your door is easy for the most part. Simply open the app (or go on Google.com from your web browser) and search for nearby restaurant. If they perform deliveries, you’ll see an option under the restaurants listing to “Place an order.” From there, you’ll be able to pick from one of 6 different delivery services: Seamless, Grubhub, Eat24, Delivery.com, BeyondMenu or MyPizza.com.

Once selected, you simply complete your order on their website and you’re on your way to a hot meal. Although the list may sound a bit skimpy at the moment, Google says they’re looking to add more service providers in the future, so keep a look out. And yes, this is US-only for now (sorry, rest of the world).

It’s not quite Chipotle delivery, but it’s the next best thing if peeling yourself off the couch to grab a meal sounds like too much work.

Google Play’s upcoming Family section makes finding kid-friendly content easier than ever

We’ve had more than a few clues that Google was fixin’ to announce a new kid-friendly section of the Google Play Store. They’ve definitely been focusing on family oriented apps with the recent launch of YouTube kids and their acquisition of Launchpad Toys, a studio responsible for popular apps for kids on iOS.

The biggest clue came last week when we discovered Google’s “Designed for Families” program, a special program for developers that allows them to submit their apps for additional review so that they’ll be labeled as family-friendly in the Play Store.

According to Google, more than 1/3 of Android users in the US are parents with a kids under the age of 12. It’s because of this, Google finally took the wraps off their latest project aimed at families, a new family home section coming soon to the Google Play Store.

The new page offers a handful of tools parents can use to help discover family-friendly content for their kids. First up is the “Family star,” Google’s little green star icon that highlights family-friendly apps, games, movies, and books in the Play Store. The family home section also allows parents to search for content based on their age group, showing only filtered family-friendly results.

Because generally kids like looking for content based on their favorite characters or shows, they can now browser for content based on characters like Dora the Explorer, or My Little Pony. Apps and games features in family home (which undergo a manual review process) all feature objective 3rd party content ratings (like ESRB ratings) and are labeled when they’re ad-supported.

Google says that with a new set of parental controls stronger password protection for in-app purchases, Android is more fantastic than ever for families looking to keep a watchful eye over their kids digital playtime.