Category: Utility
(iPad and iPhone; Free) - Why use an app for searching Google? Because the Google Search app does one fantastic thing: it provides a voice search interface. Tap the microphone icon at the bottom of the app screen, and say whatever you'd type into a Google search. Even better, Google Search can (optionally) know where you are by your device's GPS coordinates, and so it knows you probably want to know the closest example of whatever you've just said. Of course, this is Google, so there's probably no end to the possible things it might be able to interpret, such as "what's the weather?," "what's playing at the AMC 12 in Milwaukee?," or "how many gallons in 94 ounces?"
Even more fantastic, but not quite "useful," is Google Goggles. Tap the "Goggle" camera icon and point your device's camera at something, and Google will try to give you information about it. If it's got text or a bar code, that's simple. But in experiments, I've discovered that Google can identify a magazine ad from a tiny photographic fragment of the ad; that it can identify "a salt and pepper shaker" and "two salt shakers" just from seeing the seasonings through the glass shakers. It's more of a prototypical idea than a tool at this point, but suggests a promising (and scary) future.
The app also provides an app launcher for Google's Internet-based services, including Gmail, YouTube, PicasaWeb, Google Drive (formerly Google Docs), Translate, and Blogger.
(Google Search)
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