LOS ANGELES — Search engine giant Google has announced the release of a significant redesign for its Google Search app for iPad.
“Whether you’re doing research and comparing results, or exploring beautiful imagery, we have added new features to make the app more interactive, more visual and to help you find what you want more easily,” Google Search app software engineer, Daniel Fish, wrote.
It’s the “exploring beautiful imagery” part that holds appeal for adult marketers.
Fish goes on to state that the revamped app is even faster, more interactive and visual than before, with Google Instant beginning to display results before users press “search.”
“Once you pick a web page to visit, you’ll see the page load on a new, slide-in pane that will layer over the search results,” Fish explains. “You can slide the pane to the right to get back to your search results, and even keep scrolling through the results as your web page is loading. This allows you to go back and forth from results to web pages quickly to get the information you are looking for.”
As for its visual improvements, the improved app is said to be “much more vivid.”
“Tap on any image result to use the new image carousel, which lets beautiful images shine,” Fish added. “You’ll see the image you selected expand, and you can easily swipe through the carousel to see other similar images.”
This ease of access is carried into reviews of search history; where typing on a tablet can be a challenge — prompting the creation of a visual way of exploring search history via a swipe of the screen, to view snapshots of visited pages, organized by search term.
“With this release, we also brought Instant Previews to the app so you can quickly compare web pages before you choose your result,” Fish states. “Tapping on an icon in the top right of the screen brings you into a visual preview of the pages for your search result, easy to scroll through with the swipe of a finger.”
“After you’ve selected a result, a new tool helps you find exactly what you need within a web page,” Fish advises. “Tap the magnifying glass on the top right-hand corner to highlight the most relevant section of the page.”
Users can recommend pages via the +1 button located next to the magnifying glass, as part of the revised apps better integration with Google services such as Google News, Calendar, Gmail, Google+ and more.
Google’s updated search app is available for iPad on iOS 4.0+ from the App Store.
As Apple’s iPad and other tablets make continued inroads, Google’s efforts to reach this growing audience provide inspiration and opportunity for adult content marketers.