Coolest feature I skipped in Google’s iPhone interface: suggested search
I spent a little more time with the new iPhone interface for Google applications today and either missed one cool feature or it was already there and I never saw it. What is it? When typing in a Google search term, the application will suggest terms based on the characters you entered; just like on the desktop. It’s one thing to bring the desktop apps to the handheld, but even more empowering to bring traditional desktop-only features to them. Again, I might have missed this before today; that’s a real possibility since the official Google news on the new interface doesn’t mention it. Can’t say that I Google too much on my iPhone and when I do, I typically use the dedicated Google search field in mobile Safari. After seeing the suggested searches feature, I’ll probably use the mobile search more often than the dedicated search.
Kevin…
It’s great fun to see a nice, clean mobile interface for Google that doesn’t look like all the life has been sucked out of it (the way most “lite” mobile interfaces do).
The one wrinkle in the Suggested Search implementation, though (and I think the reason why I hadn’t noticed it until I read your post) is that when the iPhone keyboard is open (while you’re typing in the search box), all but one or two of the suggestions are hidden by the keyboard! I like it anyway.
Steve
Just a corection, its not a desktop feature, its a browser feature based off the type of JavaScript that is used. Basically, this was just a matter of Google making sure that this same JS developed for Safari desktop/IE/FF/Opera/etc. is tweaked to work with this iteration of their search page.
It would be better if the suggestions could be adjusted on the basis of whether the device is portrat or landscape, thereby mitigating the issue reported by the commenter above me. However, that would require reading the resolution during runtime and then serving the correct JS implementation. That is slow, and not at all optimial.
Its still a nice feature.
>>>When typing in a Google search term, the application will suggest terms based on the characters you entered; just like on the desktop.
Yeah, WTF? I get that with the new Yahoo on the desktop (Firefox). I’ve also gotten it with *Google Japan* — but *never* with USA Google!
Mike, try this URL for searches; it’s what I’ve been using for nearly two years. http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
I just noticed this for the first time last night as well – very cool. This latest refreshed look for Google on the iPhone is excellent, and so is their recent Google Reader refresh …