The Google Home personal assistant , a voice-activated speaker powered by Google Assistant, arrived in stores in November with some neat tricks for travelers :  the ability to suggest nearby restaurants, translate foreign words,  convert currency, track flight status and answer fact-based queries such  as, “How much does Global Entry cost?”   Roughly  six months later, it’s doing things it couldn’t before, like tracking  flight prices, giving directions and providing same-day updates on  traffic to airports.   Anyone  vaguely familiar with other personal virtual assistants, like Alexa  from Amazon or Siri from Apple, knows that this technology is a work in  progress. But I was impressed with how far Google Assistant   and Google Home have come in a short period, and it’s not difficult to  see them becoming a larger part of travelers’ lives in the near future.