Recently Google launched it’s own native mobile search app for S60 phones, which was reviewed here by AAS, which was recieved badly by bloggers and enthusiasts, example: IntoMobile’s Stefan post.
But people don’t realize that this app is competing not with the internal browser (which btw, setting google as your homepage is cheating), it’s rival is Nokia’s own Search app, and it completely kicks its ass. See the videos below for comparison. I also measured the time between the first keystroke to when ebay starts loading in the browser.
Nokia Search app, 53 seconds
Google Search app, 13 seconds (and just because I missed the link when clicking in the browser =P)
And just for fun
Browser Bookmark, 24 seconds
You can take your own conclusions, my personal choice is the google bookmark, since it’s moderately fast and it doesn’t have a ugly shortcut like the Google app.
For me, if the google app had a standard standby plugin (which Nokia really need to open the api for) it would be a killer app.If only because it opens and connects the browser in the background, while you’re typing. So when you’re searching for big things, it takes off a HUGE part of the loading process.
And this again shows what a joke Nokia Search is. They should tear apart the device search and the web search, to make the web part faster. (But I still love the device search feature).
EDIT: To demonstrate why the pre-loading of the browser in the Google app is awesome, here’s two videos with a larger search string:
Rumors with Google Search, 18 seconds
Rumors with Browser, 31 seconds
The difference is that when you open the browser it stops to connect, the “Connecting via internets” dialog you see. In the Google app it connects on the background, definitely speeding up the process.
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