Re: Why do so many people confuse Google's Firebase (cloud API) with Google Services Google Firebase App Indexing (search results)?

Arno Welzel wrote on Mon, 24 Jun 2024 10:10:31 +0200 :

The fact is you got it wrong. But I don't blame you for guessing.

 
I did not guess.
 
And also understand that "App Indexing" is also mentioned as example in
the *Firebase* samples collection:
 
<https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-android/blob/master/app-indexing/README.md>

Thanks for that link, for without cites, people are just guessing, and most
people wouldn't know Firebase App Indexing if it stared them in the face.

Hence, most people will always guess wrong.

As I said, almost nobody understands the difference, and that's why I said
it was a hard question to answer. Hence I appreciate that you found another
cite which backs up exactly what I have been saying all along (remember, I
am the one who knew from the start that there are two Firebase-named
products from Google, one of which is deprecated but still in use - neither
of which has any relation to the other).

Looking at that first cite, it says:
 <https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-android/blob/master/app-indexing/README.md>
  "Firebase App Indexing Quickstart
   Firebase App Indexing is no longer the recommended way of indexing
   content for display as suggested results in Google Search App.
   Please check the App Indexing Documentation for more details."
   <https://firebase.google.com/docs/app-indexing>

Both clearly say, rather obviously, absolutely NOTHING about the cloud.
It's all about on-device search results (as I have been saying all along).

Here is an example from my phone of what's in that Firebase app index.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/QtfJ59LP/firebase02.jpg> Firebase indexed app data

Does your phone show similar Firebase App Indexing XML data?

However since Google does no longer recommend using "Firebase App
Indexing" the old code samples got removed. But you can still access
them thanks to Git and the possibility to access older versions of the code:
<https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-android/tree/12d0ace067a11319d47109c98cb08f82275eca25/app-indexing>

Again, I repeat. If this was so simple to answer, then even Chris would
know how to answer it - so I appreciate that you're trying to help out.

It's a difficult question to answer simply because there's not much about
it, but the fact it's deprecated is nearly meaningless as it's on your
phone right now - whether or not it's deprecated.

And, more to the point, it's uploading its index statistics to Google
servers, which is really the reason we need to understand this thing.

Looking at the link you kindly suggested I take a look at:
 <https://github.com/firebase/quickstart-android/tree/12d0ace067a11319d47109c98cb08f82275eca25/app-indexing>

Again, I appreciate that you confirmed with cites that the entire GitHub
site you referenced says absolutely NOTHING about the cloud (as expected).
 "The Firebase App Indexing Android quickstart demonstrates
  how to get your app to be found in Google Search."

What's interesting in that second link is this adb command:
 c:\> adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "https://www.example.com/articles/test" com.google.samples.quickstart.appindexing

To make sure I was connected to adb, I ran this test first:
 c:\> adb shell am start -n com.google.android.gms/.location.settings.LocationAccuracyActivity
Which successfully started that activity on my phone over adb, saying:
 "Starting: Intent { cmp=com.google.android.gms/.location.settings.LocationAccuracyActivity }"

But when I ran the listed command, it failed:
 c:\> adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d "https://www.example.com/articles/test" com.google.samples.quickstart.appindexing
Which reported:
 "Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW
dat=https://www.example.com/...
pkg=com.google.samples.quickstart.appindexing }
 Error: Activity not started, unable to resolve Intent { act=android.intent.action.VIEW dat=https://www.example.com/... flg=0x10000000 pkg=com.google.samples.quickstart.appindexing }"

To debug why it failed, I ran a search for a random package name:
 C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findStr /i "osmand"
Which reported "package:net.osmand.plus" so I know that it's working.

Then I searched for the desired package in question:
 C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findStr /i "appindexing"
 C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findStr /i "quickstart"
 C:\> adb shell pm list packages | findStr /i "com.google.samples"
 etc.
Each and every one of which shows that this
com.google.samples.quickstart.appindexing package is not on my system.

Nonetheless, the point is that NOTHING in the description shows any
relationship whatsoever to the cloud, including this related link.
 <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/android-app-indexing>
 "App indexing allows us to enable Google to crawl through an android
  app's content and present it to users through Google Search results."

In summary, I appreciate you found those links because it is my premise
that very few people understand what Firebase (cloud) is compared to what
Google Services Firebase App Indexing (search) is, where it matters mainly
because Firebase App Indexing is beyond your direct control - and yet -
Google clearly says they upload an index of statistics to Google servers.

That's why it is important to understand what it is, and what it does.