Google had several announcements today at its Inside Search event. Some of them brought features that have been available on mobile to the desktop (such as Google Goggles and Voice Search). Google also revealed some new mobile features.
For one, Google is displaying new shortcut icons on the Google for Mobile home page, to make it easier to find things nearby. There are icons for Restaurants, Coffee, Bars, and More. When you click More, you get other options like shopping, ATMs, gas stations, etc. This is also part of Google’s new Places homepage.
“On the results page, you’ll see a map with markers for your current location and places around you,” explains Director of Engineering Scott Huffman. “When you scroll through the results, the map remains at the top of the page and adjusts automatically to the listing you are looking at. That way, you can see the listing information while still getting location context from the map. Tapping on a result will quickly show you more about a place including reviews and other useful details. Discovering great places nearby has never been easier on your mobile phone.”
Google has also introduced a new way to build longer, more complex searches, with a feature that lets you add suggested phrases to the search box. The feature is already available on the Google Search app for Android and iOS, but now it will simply be available on google.com from the mobile browser. The following video illustrates how this works:
The new features are available for Android version 2.2 and up, and iOS 4.0 and up in 40 languages, globally.