14 DAY TRIAL // Google debuted an updated Google Search iPad app. The new app comes with plenty of improvements and makes the most out of the tablet's capabilities, gestures are used throughout for example.
You really have to see it in action to fully appreciate it, which is why the video below should come in handy, but there's one interesting thing about the new iPad app, that Google isn't really making a fuss over, it's filled to the brim with other Google apps.
Most of Google's main web apps are just a button away in the Google Search iPad app.
They load inside the app, most of the time using the mobile web version of the service, in a side panel which can be swiped aside to get back to searching.
Everything is in there, Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Google+, Maps, YouTube, even Offers and Voice.
The Google apps are just one part of the Google Search app, but the fact that they're there in the first place, means that users have a fast way of getting to them.
In essence, the Google Search app becomes more like the "Google app." Granted, the web version of Google Docs is not the same as a native application, but it's pretty slick in its own right.
And it's just a couple of taps away, if you need to check out something really fast, it's probably faster to use the Search app than Safari.
Another great example is Gmail. Recently, Google debuted its very first Gmail app for iOS. To say it was a disappointment is an understatement. It came out extremely buggy so it had to be pulled.
Even now that it has been re-released, the app seems like a lazy throw-together. That's because it uses the web version of Gmail, the native app is just a wrapper to load the web version and serve push notifications. Which are worthless anyway since they don't have a preview of the email message.
By comparison, the Google Search app for the iPad is at the opposite end of the spectrum, some are labeling it as one of the best apps on the iPad, period. And the search app also loads the mobile web version of Gmail, with exactly them same functionality as the native app, making the latter rather useless.
