Google’s been redesigning many of its web services like Gmail and Reader lately to follow its new Google+ UI template, and now it appears its time for Google’s apps to get the same new coat of paint. The newest version of Google’s official Search app for iOS not only gets a new design for the iPad, but a fullscreen mode for iPhone and numerous other fixes and additions.
The iPad half of the universal binary is where the changes really shine. Not only does Google Search get a nice new UI with four grayscale icons as shortcuts for History, Applications, Voice Search and Googles, but there’s a new side-by-side view that allows you to browse webpages and check search results simultaneously, as well as a fullscreen mode for images. Nice, especially given the addition of Google Instant results.
On the iPhone side, Google Search users get the full screen image mode, as well as a bunch of other fixes.
You know, I never use the Google Search app, so I always forget just how useful it is. What about you? Does Google’s app have a place on your device, or is iOS’s built-in Google functionality good enough?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
8 responses to “Google Updates iOS Search App With Google+ Style iPad UI And Many More Improvements”
This is an iOS app done right (finally, for Google!)
I’m heartened by this development. I found the Google Search app to be ponderously slow. I’m off to do some updating to see if that’s been addressed.
And I’ve installed them and they’re excellent upgrades.
I’m torn… I really want Google to release a killer app, but they just haven’t done it yet. The new Google (Search) app seems like a nice improvement, but after trying it out, I seriously don’t think I’ll use it. Seems half baked, and doesn’t include Google Talk. Speaking of which, in an ideal world, Google Talk will work with iMessage, and iMessage will work with iChat.