The new Google Search app for iPad
(Cross posted on the Inside Search Blog) — Today, we're very pleased to be launching a significant redesign for the Google Search app for iPad. As you can see in our video, whether you're doing research and comparing results, or exploring beautiful imagery …
Context & Ripple Effects
This redesign extends a year of front-end work on Google's iOS search presence: back in March 2011 the company renamed and re-skinned its iPhone search app, and the new iPad build applies the same thinking to the larger screen, with layouts built for comparing results side by side and browsing imagery rather than just listing ten blue links.
First-order effects
- iPad users get a native Google search client designed around the tablet's screen — research, comparison, and image exploration become first-class flows instead of scaled-up phone layouts.
Second-order effects
- By investing in a dedicated app on Apple's platform, Google keeps the search entry point inside its own client rather than ceding it entirely to the browser, protecting query volume and branding on a rival's device.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — phone app in March, tablet app in November — Google is treating every major device class as deserving its own purpose-built search surface, making native clients a standing part of how it distributes search.
The trend: Google is rebuilding search's front end as polished native apps per platform, with the 2011 iPhone and iPad redesigns marking the shift from ported mobile web to device-specific clients.