Google Search on iOS Devices



Google has updated their search app in the iTunes store for both the iPhone and iPad. I do recommend downloading it, but it is not without its problem. On the face of it the app is a way to search in the Chrome world on the iPad. When you search for something it pops up within the application, no going out to Safari. It uses instant search so it is very fast. If you click on a link in search, the link page shows up on the right side, but the search page still remains on the left tab, so you can easily go back and forth. If you are searching an image, you can open it to full size and then swipe to the next similar image like a carousel. You can do voice search which is great especially on the iPhone, where it can be hard to type.

The real strength though are the apps that are included within the Google Search Application. Now you can use Google Maps, Docs, Mail, Calendar in fact any app that is available through your google account is available through this application. Now you can up date your google docs or view your pictures in Picasa. However you can only view your pictures, you can’t add them from your iOS photo gallery. I tried to do a post on my personal blogger blog and I couldn’t figure an easy way to add links or photos. It is great for writing up the post, but you have to use the desktop version to add these. That is the problem with this app, there are a lot of things that you can’t do within this application that you can do with the web version of the application. The second problem is it does tend to crash a lot especially when it is working hard.

Despite these problems I do recommend downloading the app. Like a lot of Google products I expect it will improve overtime. Plus the fact that Apple has let an app into the market is actually surprising to some people, so how long it will stay there is a mystery. Have you tried the new Google Search app on your iOs device, what do you think of it.