14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View-based Internet giant Google seems to have performed a series of modifications to the homepage that users can access from their mobile phones.
These changes would consist mainly in the addition of a series of new buttons at the bottom of the said page.
The modifications were already spotted on a series of handsets powered by the company's Android mobile operating system, but so far nothing has officially announced on the matter.
The said changes include the addition of specific shortcuts to various mobile pages that users can access from their devices, and which offer info on places that might be of interest to them.
In other words, Google added Places buttons straight to the mobile homepage, providing users with fast access to info on nearby Restaurants, Coffee shops, ATMs, Gas Stations and more.
Not all of these will be displayed at the bottom of the said page, but there is one more button that will bring the entire list before your eyes.
As soon as the user taps on the specific Places button, he / she will be taken to a corresponding page, with a split map/list view of what should be most relevant for the respective category.
For the time being, reports on the availability of these enhancements have apparently come only from US users, but, provided that Google is indeed making these changes, they should emerge in more markets, that's for sure.
Since nothing has been announced on the matter until now, chances are that Google is only testing the feature at the moment, and that they would decide whether to roll it out as soon as the experiment was concluded.
With Google Maps being the most downloaded application in the Android Market, and with users constantly seeking information on the places nearby, we should not be surprised if Google indeed made the said changes to its mobile page.