“Today, we’re very pleased to be launching a significant redesign for the Google Search app for iPad,” Daniel Fish, Software Engineer, Google Search app, reports via The Official Google Mobile Blog.
“Whether you’re doing research and comparing results, or exploring beautiful imagery, we have added new features to make the app more interactive, more visual and to help you find what you want more easily,” Fish writes. “You’ll notice that searching is faster and more interactive from your first keystroke. As soon as you begin to type, Google Instant starts to display results, so you don’t even need to press the search button.”
“Once you pick a web page to visit, you’ll see the page load on a new, slide-in pane that will layer over the search results. You can slide the pane to the right to get back to your search results, and even keep scrolling through the results as your web page is loading,” Fish explains. “This allows you to go back and forth from results to web pages quickly to get the information you are looking for.”
“Viewing image results in the app is now much more vivid. Tap on any image result to use the new image carousel, which lets beautiful images shine. You’ll see the image you selected expand, and you can easily swipe through the carousel to see other similar images,” Fish writes. “Often you may be looking to find something you have seen before again or are continuing research on a topic. But on a tablet, typing can be a challenge. That is why we have created a visual way to explore your search history. Swipe right to view snapshots of pages you’ve visited, stacked and organized by search term. You can also manage your search history from this new view.”
“With this release, we also brought Instant Previews to the app so you can quickly compare web pages before you choose your result,” Fish writes. “Tapping on an icon in the top right of the screen brings you into a visual preview of the pages for your search result, easy to scroll through with the swipe of a finger.
Fish writes, “Finally, we added a few extra features that we hope will help you find what you want more easily. After you’ve selected a result, a new tool helps you find exactly what you need within a web page. Tap the magnifying glass on the top right-hand corner to highlight the most relevant section of the page. You can recommend pages you like with the new +1 button, right next to the magnifying glass, and help others find relevant sites more easily as well. We’ve also made it easier to find and use your favorite Google services like Google News, Calendar and more in the new Apps menu. Tap on an icon to quickly read an email in Gmail, or share a post on Google+ within the slide-in pane. When you slide the pane to the right, you’ll be right back to searching. The app is available worldwide for iPads with iOS 4.0+.”
More info and download link for Google Search app for iPad via Apple’s iTunes App Store here.
HTML5 already has gestures support, though this is less standard yet than other parts of this standard (which is under development).
Once this will be more stable, the need Google Seach application for iPad will be gone.
That’s damn annoying – the app looks nicely designed and appears to take advantage of the iOS interface. Just when I was trying to limit the amount of Google stuff on my iPad…
There is Bing application for that.
Bing/Google. NEITHER will be on my iPad.
Google is the default search engine in Safari on my iPad, that’s as far as it goes.
By “exploring beautiful imagery” he means looking at naked women, right?
Google, you can not be Siri-ous!
What safari should have been in the first place…..