If you’ve had the Google search app for a while, I seriously suspect that you’ve not used it very much. Apart from the fact that you could search by voice, it really wasn’t that good. The good news is that they’ve redesigned it completely and with it’s new features and a well designed UI it’s definitely improved.

In their blog, Google have said “If you need to do a Google search on your iPhone or iPod touch it’s now faster and easier when you use our redesigned Google Search app, formerly Google Mobile App,”

So let’s take a look at this completely redesigned app, which is available for both the iPhone and the iPad. Google have changed the controls to feature a new swipe-down and swipe-right function which takes you to a settings screen and an apps button, or to the more search tools area that you get on the non-app versions of Google e.g. image search or news, etc…

Image search in new Google iPhone app

Image search

This means that you can swipe-down to see the search bar and make changes to your settings whilst looking through search result, or even on the webpage your viewing through the application itself. Pretty cool. Also, by hitting the Apps button which appears at the bottom of the display you can rapidly access the various mobile search apps that Google have developed.

Swipe Action controls

Swipe Action controls

One of the most significant effects of all these changes is that you can browse through the web for hours without having to leave the app itself… no need for Safari, although currently there’s no where near the functionality of the iPhone’s native browser.

The fact that you can now change the settings for the app is interesting and allows you to set your own preferences as to which Google apps you want to appear.

All in all a decent upgrade and I’m sure not the last. This is definitely a big move for Google and the start of what I think will be a much more aggressive strategy to get more involved with what we’re doing on our mobiles.