San Francisco — Seeking to capture the mobile domain and simplifying it for Nokia S60 Smartphone users to access its Web services on the go, search engine giant Google has finally launched a mobile application for S60 devices. The free Google Mobile App empowers S60 users quick access to the search company’s Web services, including search, Gmail, and Google Maps.
The app, which is fully functional on devices like the Nokia N96, offering access to Google’s search and other Web services. The search feature has been specifically tailored for the mobile screen, Google said.
“We have adopted a dual approach to help make query formulation quick and efficient,” Google wrote on its mobile blog. “First, your search history is readily available so that it is easy to repeat queries. Second, we offer query suggestions based on what has been entered so far to get you to your results as quickly as possible.”
With the Mobile App for Nokia S60 devices, Google claims it has addressed three main issues related to speediness: access, location, and query formulation. The app can be launched from the home screen and offers quick button links to search, Google Maps, GMail, and Google Mobile services.
Image via Official Google Mobile Blog.
The search bar is decorated on the top by icons for Gmail, Google Maps for Mobile, YouTube, and Picasa Web albums. Clicking either of the first three will launch each separate native app if you have got it installed, or will install it for the first time if you do not have it. A “more” button swiftly leads you to online versions of Goog 411, Google Reader, Google SMS, and Orkut.
The final attribute in this comprehensible and endlessly useful app is the “My Location” feature that uses the phone’s GPS or cell tower triangulation to guess your general neighborhood. The app also keeps track of search history, serving up past keywords in order to enable repeat queries. For example, if a user searches for a coffee shop with My Location on, the results will skew toward coffee stores that are near the user. Plus, search suggestions are part of the mix as well, to reduce the amount of typing required to search.
As increasing number of customers use their mobile phones to access the Web, the mobile space is becoming more and more important for Google. CEO Eric Schmidt has even said he expects revenue from mobile advertising to eventually exceed that from the normal Web. To capitalize on this, the search company has introduced the Android operating system on devices like the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic, and upcoming phones from a variety of manufacturers.
However, this is not the first Google app to come to the Nokia S60 series. Back in March, a YouTube was released for this set of smartphones as well.
You can launch Google Mobile App from Nokia’s Today screen by pressing the phone’s “back” key. Users can opt out by disabling the quick launch hot key in the app’s Setting menu.
The Google Mobile For S60 app can be downloaded directly to the phone by visiting Google’s mobile home page.