Google has improved upon its integrated services offering for iPhone announced last month, the company has said.
The previous version of the integrated Google iPhone experience brought together a suite of web applications including Search, Gmail, Calendar and Reader into one interface. Google has since streamlined the interface even more, making the applications faster and improving usability, the search company said.
The improvements announced yesterday, the first day of Apple’s Macworld expo, include improved user interface with applications easier to activate, navigate and use via a touchscreen; customisation of default tabs, so Google users can have easy access to their favourite applications on the Google.com menu bar; speedier Gmail with new incoming emails automatically showing, removing the need to refresh, as well as a new auto-complete feature for contacts that makes composing emails faster; a speedier calendar with month-long views; and an iGoogle feature that enables everything Google users have customised on their iGoogle homepage such as weather, stocks and news feeds to appear on their iPhones.
Google plans to expand the iPhone experience to international versions of the iPhone and to other platforms that offer similar usability and browser capabilities. The company said one of its goals is to support platforms that are fulfilling the promise of the mobile web – like the iPhone – and to ultimately deliver unique and compelling mobile experiences that improve people’s daily lives.
By Niall Byrne
