Google Now, Google’s mobile on-demand information service, has added support for bitcoin services provider Coinbase.The news comes amid a service update in which it introduced new “cards” that aim to deliver timely information to Android phone users while removing their need to search for it directly.The launch included 40 cards, each based on a company or popular Internet service such as Airbnb, Pandora and Coinbase.According to the company, Coinbase’s card will specifically notify Google Now users when there are fluctuations in the price of bitcoin, while Airbnb's will suggest travel information.With the news, Google Now becomes the latest Google service that supports some bitcoin-related functionality, following its decision to add bitcoin prices to its search engine this summer.Images via Google Now Previous Article Bitcoin ATM Maker Robocoin Hints at Software Shift Next Article Coinsetter CEO: Taking on Credit Cards Isn't Bitcoin's Big...We’re proud to announce that Google now shows bitcoin in their currency tracker, using Coinbase market prices through our standard API.Now that Coinbase’s API is being used on Google, anyone who uses Google can see a graph of current and past bitcoin values compared to U.S.

They can also use Google’s currency converter to determine how many dollars equal how many bitcoin, and vice versa.We’re glad to be working with Google, furthering their goal of bringing more of the world’s information to people seeking answers.ShareBitcoin may be a highly controversial virtual currency, but it seems like Google and Yahoo are taking steps to acknowledge it as a legit currency — by adding Bitcoin prices to their finance networks.This comes after Microsoft added Bitcoin currency conversion to Bing in February, with the data provided by digital wallet company Coinbase.Google had earlier said it had no plans regarding the incorporation of Bitcoin into its Wallet payment system, but this latest step is a tentative move towards acknowledging it.Bitcoin has been battered by various scandals this year — think Mt.Gox’s downfall — and government crackdowns, the most recent one being China, where two national banks and Tenpay banned cryptocurrencies.However, there’s still hope for the virtual currency as big internet firms are continuing to recognize and accept such a payment method, with Expedia being the latest one.

Apple has also recently said it will allow Bitcoin and other virtual currency apps if they comply with local laws.Thumbnail image via George Frey/Getty Images Read next: Amazon Cloud Player for iOS adds Prime Music streaming, is renamed to Amazon MusicThe requested URL /finance%3Fcid%3D626307 was not found on this server.That’s all we know.Balloons bearing the bitcoin logo float above the floor at the Inside Bitcoins conference and trade show, on Monday, April 7, 2014 in New York.ethereum cpu pool miningThe balloons are part of a promotional effort by London-based Cloud Hashing, a bitcoin mining company.Balloons bearing the bitcoin logo float above the floor at the Inside Bitcoins conference and trade show, on Monday, April 7, 2014 in New York.bitcoin diario la nacionThe balloons are part of a promotional effort by London-based Cloud Hashing, a bitcoin mining company.The price of Bitcoin has taken bit of a dive over the last couple of days, shedding over 20 percent of its value in the last 24 hours.ethereum gemini chart

The sell-off, like other sell-offs and rallies before it, draws a lot of attention and questions about what it means for the future of the technology.Here's why I don't focus on price much.Bitcoin is best thought of as a 5- to 10-year project, and we're at the very early stages.An (admittedly imperfect) analogy is the early Web.Jerry BritoAboutJerry Brito is executive director of Coin Center, a non-profit research and advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin.Like the early Web, Bitcoin is an open platform that no one owns, and on top of which anyone can build without having to get anyone else's permission.foro bitcoin rusiaAnd just like the early Web, success requires investors, entrepreneurs, and developers to build out the infrastructure and applications that will make it useful to average users.The World Wide Web was conceived by Tim Berners-Lee; he published a paper proposing it in March of 1989.mine litecoin on mac

The following year he worked to implement the idea in code, making the first website in December of 1990.The first popular Web browser didn't come until 1993 when Marc Andreessen and the team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications released Mosaic.The following year Andreessen started Netscape and released the Netscape Navigator browser in 1994.Those of us old enough to remember using Navigator to browse the Web over a Winsock connection on a 56k baud modem can attest that it was not the amazing experience we take for granted today.bitcoin wikipedia hindiIn fact, if you couldn't see that the technology would evolve, you would have concluded that it was practically useless.For one thing, there was no easy way to find things on the Web.Well, we didn't get Google until 1998.Google is now the most visited website on the planet.Second to it is Facebook, and for many people the Web is virtually synonymous with social networking.

Yet Facebook was not founded until 2004–a full 14 years after the Web was first conceived.So here's the parallel: Bitcoin was conceived by Satoshi Nakamoto and proposed in a paper published in 2008.He worked on implementing the idea into code, mining the first block of the blockchain in January of 2009.So, if we take the Web as a parallel, we're at the stage in Bitcoin were we would hope to see a Mosaic level development, not a Facebook.In other words, it's early days.The Googles and Facebooks of Bitcoin–the killer apps that will make the technology indispensable for ordinary users–may not come for another 5 years.Unlike the early Web, though, Bitcoin has a price ticker people look at daily, and so they wring their hands.Every dip and spike in the price gets a lot of attention and spells either doom or "irrational exuberance."But as Marc Andreessen has pointed out, “the price of domain names didn't determine the usefulness of the Internet.”With a longer time horizon in mind, you can put the short-term drops and rallies in price of Bitcoin in perspective.