Google song search used every 6 months
Andrew uses Google's hum-to-search feature roughly every six months and finds it reliably identifies songs he can only hum or mumble.
Snapshot · Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast
Nothing Beats Phone 4b with Ear 3a?
Explore episode
Jul 10, 2026
Where this was said
Did They Even Test This? — Google Hum-to-Search & Shazam's Legacy
At 2:24 · chapter starts 1:42
Andrew opens with a genuine moment of appreciation for a feature most people forget exists: Google's ability to identify a song from a hummed or mumbled melody, accessible by tapping the mic in the search bar. He's used it roughly every six months — his search history confirms December, May, and January hits — and it works almost every time. The crew traces the lineage back to a pre-acquisition world where Shazam and SoundHound competed fiercely, with SoundHound having the edge at identifying hum-based searches — exactly the capability Google now owns natively. Marques notes this is a textbook 'Sherlocked' story: both apps are now redundant. David adds that younger users might not even associate the Shazam name with song recognition — they're more likely to think of the superhero film. Andrew floats a video idea: a tier list of phone gimmicks that either became essential features or died quietly.
Google's Hum-to-Search Is a Secretly Underrated Feature
Google's ability to identify a song you hum or mumble is one of those ambient computing features that quietly became indispensable. It replaced two competing apps — Shazam and SoundHound — and is now so seamlessly built into Android that Pixel phones can identify playing music without you even asking.
Phone Gimmick Tier List: Which Features Actually Survived?
Andrew floats the idea of tier-listing phone gimmicks — features that seemed like marketing stunts at launch but became genuinely useful over time. Instant candidates include the Pixel's ambient music detection, Samsung's privacy screen, and the LG Soli radar and vein ID sensors, which land firmly in F-tier.
The Pixel's Ambient Computing Era Was Special — And It's Already Over
David noted that for several years, each new Pixel launch brought a meaningfully new ambient computing feature that quietly became part of daily life. That era has ended, and no competitor has replaced it — a loss that mostly went unmourned because it happened gradually.
Similar snapshots
MVP built in one week
Sam's initial MVP was coded in approximately one week using ChatGPT voice mode and copy-pasting code, with no prior technical experience.
Discord vs email for young users
Sam argues Discord is 10x better than email for building relationships with younger users who rarely check their inbox.
Monthly infra costs ~$780–$980
Sam's monthly operating costs include Cursor ($200), AI image generation ($100), AI video generation ($200), hosting ($100), email marketing ($80), and AI compute ($300–$500).
ChatGPT-powered pain point research
Sam recommends copying days of Discord chat history into ChatGPT and prompting it to list recurring pain points as a fast, free market research technique.
50 free tools built total
Bhanu and his team built approximately 50 free tools to attract search traffic, each linked back to SiteGPT.
New tool built in under 5 minutes
With AI coding tools like Cursor, Bhanu can now create a new free marketing tool in less than 5 minutes by referencing existing tools.
KD filter < 10 for rankable keywords
Bhanu filters Ahrefs keyword results to show only those with a keyword difficulty below 10, making them realistic ranking targets for any decent website.
Minimum 1,000 monthly search volume
Bhanu sets a minimum search volume of 1,000 monthly searches when selecting keywords to target with free tools.
20 downloads/day at launch
PropGPT averaged 20 downloads per day right after launching on the App Store through influencer marketing.
