a real idle screen widget from Google

Tags: Design,  Mobile applications,  Review
February 21, 2008 by steven

If handset manufacturers won't give us widget-based idle screens, maybe individual app providers can just cheat their way into it for us.

My N75 is pretty customizable for a mobile phone, really. But it only allows me to customize a small line of icons (six, actually) on the idle screen. The rest of that screen is occupied with an events list from the calendar I never use. And of course, I am always reminded its an AT&T phone; 'cause the screen-printed logo is almost 2" away from the top of the screen.

One of my favorite mobile apps, LCG Jukebox, snuck a sort of portlet/widget thing onto an unused spot on the idle screen while playing music in a very useful and unexpected cheat of the interface.

And now google has made their new mobile search a downloadable app for the S60. And it puts a neat little (passive) widget thing on the home deck.

It even fades away after a while, which is perfect since they recognize that this is a reminder of a shortcut, not an interactive element itself. Clicking the shortcut key (the little pencil is a key on most S60 devices, like mine) brings up a real, interactive search widget!

This search widget, unlike some full-screen apps I have used lately, supports the existing device interfaces completely. The input method is changable (from predictive to triple-tap, for example) and uses the conventional symbology, just inside its little widget. Simply pressing OK/Enter submits the search, and it even takes over the softkeys for options.

The results are full-screen, as they should be and are basically identical to the web based search results and are just offered up in the default web browser. Options are available, but are at the bottom of the screen, again exactly as they should be. If there is anything odd, its that the app has a cursor.

Despite being a very standard-looking list-based layout that would have worked fine with simple scroll-and-select indicating, its got a pointer . Not sure why that is. because its in the default browser, which I don't like much. I wonder if there will be a way to change to results target, so I can just open them in Opera Mini instead? Especially when following links to other sites, a better browser and single set of bookmarks would be nice.


I don't think Symbian originally expected Google (or LCG) to do this with their software. I certainly see nothing about this functionality in their documentation. So I wonder what else can be pulled out of various existing OS's as clever developers work to bring us better experiences, one app at a time.

(I also sorta wonder if this will change Google's ranking of device use; I for one will never, ever be using the yahoo! search built into the Opera Mini browser anymore.)


For our complete thoughts on how widgets and home decks could and should work, request a copy of our widgets white paper.


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5 Comments »

  1. I for one will never, ever be using the yahoo! search built into the Opera Mini browser anymore

    Not sure if you’re already aware of this, but you could easily add the search engine of your choice (Google, etc.) to the Opera Mini start page.

    To add Google Search, go to google.com, click on the query input box to enter a search query, then click on the Opera Mini menu button and click on ‘Create search’

    Hope this helps.

    Daniel
    Opera Software

    Comment by Daniel Goldman — February 21, 2008 @ 11:53 am

  2. Huh. I had totally misinterpreted this action, and therefore never activated it. I presumed that it meant search on page, or something like that. Okay. Done.

    And to be clear, though I have had some poor results from it, I am not unreasonably angered by the Yahoo! link on the home deck. I presume there is a business deal behind Opera’s default choice of Yahoo! These sorts of partnerships are (mostly) a much less intrusive way to get revenue behind a freely distributed version of a product than straight-up advertising. Anything functional is good, so I like it.

    I was commenting mostly about the creeping iPhone sickness than means any data pointing to high iPhone usage is instantly touted, with minimal evaluation. In the case of the Google numbers, it seems like a lot of that could be that its built into the iPhone, and not to anything else I am aware of (downloadable, but not built-in). I suspect any S60 user who downloads this widget is gonna be a very high user of google from their mobile.

    Comment by steven — February 21, 2008 @ 12:39 pm

  3. “Despite being a very standard-looking list-based layout that would have worked fine with simple scroll-and-select indicating, its got a pointer. Not sure why that is.”

    Heheh. Because all the Google app does is open the native web browser? :-)

    -Russ

    Comment by Russ — February 21, 2008 @ 12:45 pm

  4. Um…. yeah. I guess it is. Must have left it open from the install process by accident or something. Normally anything that kicks open the default browser is obvious, as its slow as hell to launch. Which sadly the Google search is now doing. No trickery at all. :(

    I also should mention I am expressly not mentioning the Nokia partnership/integration thing, because I don’t understand it. There doesn’t /seem/ to be a Nokia search on my phone right now, so I am not sure what this will mean. Now, if indeed its pretty much just this, but preloaded from next-week onward, I agree with much of your commentary on it: Yippee!

    Comment by steven — February 21, 2008 @ 1:21 pm

  5. I would love to be able to add my gmail credentials to the application and have it search my gmail/calendar/reader/etc.

    Comment by Barbara — February 22, 2008 @ 5:20 pm

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