An upgrade to Google’s Mobile App for iPhone and iPad has just appeared on the iTunes store, with the mobile search engine now known simply as “Google Search” (of course!).
The main intent appears to be keeping mobile web-browsing with the app quicker and easier, and to offer a wide range of settings, along with keeping Google fans happy to be using the Google app rather than hopping over to Apple’s own Safari to do their surfing.
All the features of its desktop counterpart are there, including the recent addition of Instant Previews, with the most noticeable change being the incorporation of a new swipe feature, which allows Google Search users to smoothly find items under settings such as news and images, settings already familiar to users of the desktop version of the search engine.
Another major change to the newly renamed Google Search will provide links to a selection of other apps within the Google range. Quite a useful feature, with these items listed tidily at the bottom of the screen without effecting or diverting from searching. Simply hop from one to the other at the touch of a button or screen – no fuss.
Unlike the previous version of the Google Mobile App, which would redirect selected search results to Apple’s own browser, this new version of Google Search will handle the browsing itself within the app, and features a whole new look.
With the inclusion of “app-to-app” linking within the Google family, and the ability to open search results within the Google Search app itself, it would appear that Google are covering all bases, invading the iPhone and iPad and setting up their own little network of goodies on the popular Apple gadgets.