Google launches iPhone app

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Google has fully signed up to the hype around Apple's first mobile device, announcing this week that it is launching an iPhone application.

The Google iPhone application is designed to bring all the Google services and applications, like Google search, Gmail, Calendar and Reader, into one user interface on the iPhone, making it easy for people to find, use and switch between them and access information wherever they are.

The new application is designed to take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of Apple's Safari internet browser, which comes as standard with the iPhone and the web 2.0 browser technologies (like asynchronous JavaScript and XML or AJAX) that Google said made Gmail and Google Maps possible on the desktop.

"In supporting these advances in web technology, the iPhone's Safari browser not only delivers an excellent mobile Internet experience; it enabled our product and engineering teams to create an optimal Google experience on a mobile device," said Google in a statement.

Although the application currently only works on the iPhone, Google added it is committed to making the application device-independent and that it is working to develop new, fast and easy-to-use mobile technologies available on more devices.

Steve Kanefsky, the Google mobile software engineer who developed the iPhone application, wrote in a blog that he wanted to create a user experience that was "fast" and "fluid," in contrast to traditional mobile internet browsing.

"I set out to create an application that would preload my favourite Google products and allow me to switch between them instantly," he said. "I wanted web results as well as image, local, and news results without having to repeat my search. I wanted to check Gmail and my news feeds in Google Reader without having to load a new page every time. I also wanted Google Suggest to save me time typing queries on the virtual keyboard."

The company also pointed to a recent example of its mobile development work called My Location, which is a Google Maps-for-mobile feature that shows users their location directly on the map with or without GPS.

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