On Windows today, people reach Google’s search service with a browser. But when Windows 8 arrives this week, the company evidently hopes people will use a dedicated search app, too.
Just as it has done with iOS and BlackBerry OS before, Google has released a dedicated search app for Windows 8. It’s available in the Windows 8 store now.
The search app is interesting for a few reasons. First, it indicates Google wants people to use its services directly, which is important since in that circumstance it doesn’t have to share search-ad revenue with whoever otherwise referred the search queries to Google. Second, it raises the prospects of other Windows apps — Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and Google+ spring to mind as possibilities. Third, it shows that Google wants to provide people with a way to perform lots of actions within an ever-richer Google environment.
The app features not just the regular a search box, but also a mechanism for voice input. Like the Web interface for search, the app also can show instant previews — small versions of Web pages that show people what they’d see if they clicked on a link. Unlike the Web version of search, though, the app shows the instant previews as an array of mini Web pages side by side on a black background. Image search results are shown in a similar fashion, and the app is touch-enabled for the Windows 8 “touch-first” era.
The search app stands alone but also can be wired into Windows 8’s Charms technology for providing systemwide services, according to its description.
And the app serves as a hub to reach other Google services such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Voice, Google+, Google Drive, and YouTube, the description said.
Although it’s a Metro app, Google said it only works on the Windows 8 running on x86 chips, not on Windows RT, which runs on ARM processors. Windows today is found solely on x86 chips from Intel or AMD, but with products like the ARM-based Microsoft Surface tablet with a detachable keyboard, Microsoft hopes to penetrate the more mobile market dominated today by Apple’s iPad.
