Google Releases Gesture Search for Android

Mountain View-based company Google has just released a new application for the users of an Android-based mobile phone, namely Gesture Search. The new software solution comes straight from the Google Labs to all handsets powered by Android 2.0 or higher in the US market, and offers a new option for searching various items on the device.

The new Gesture Search application for Android-based mobile phones offers users the possibility to easily search for contacts, installed applications, bookmarks or music tracks through simply drawing alphabet gestures on the touch screen. Of course, users already have a series of other options available for them when it comes to searching for content, including search suggestions or search by voice, but the new application is expected to make things even simpler than before.

“Say you want to call your friend Anne. Just open Gesture Search and draw letter 'A', and Gesture Search returns a list of items that have words starting with 'A'. If your handwriting isn't all that neat, that's okay. If the 'A' you draw looks a bit like an 'H', as seen in the bottom left corner of the screenshot, 'H' results will be brought up as well. If needed, you can also erase a query by crossing it horizontally: left to right erases the entire query, and right to left removes the last letter or space in the query. Now you can either scroll down the list to find Anne or write more letters to refine the search,” the company notes on its Mobile Blog.

Moreover, the new Gesture Search application has been designed so as to improve the search quality through learning from previous searches. Thus, if one searches for a certain contact, as Anne in the example above, the contact will be listed on top of other results when the same letter is drawn on the homescreen. The Gesture Search software solution is already available for download from the Android Market, yet users can also access the Google Labs page for additional details on it.