Google announced on its blog that the Google Mobile suit has been launched for Series 60 devices. The Google Mobile app collects a set of Googles mobile services, like Mail and Maps, in one location on your device.
Google’s keyword for the S60 version of this app is “immediacy”. The app has been designed to be accessed rapidly, and provides some information at a glance. First of all, it has been tied to a hotkey – pressing “C” on your device pops up the Google Mobile app. MyLocation is built-in to the app, so your location is automatically displayed at the bottom of the screen – and any searches you run have location applied to them when appropriate. And search has been made more “immediate” by haveing a search history function, along with the same search predictions you see on on-line Google.
These functions are all optional or opt-in. “C” is the default hotkey, but that can be changed, and you can choose to turn MyLocation off.
Home Screen, with location info at bottom
Search result with MyLocation data
Search prediction
What we think?
I guess Nokia releasing those APIs earlier really helped move this along! I like the updates here – especially to the search engine. It really helps Googles mobile search feel a lot more like it’s on-line version – but it still pays heed to the problems inherent in a mobile device. It’s not attempting to replicate the on-line experience on a mobile device, it’s attempting to make mobile search as smooth as on-line.
