Google rejigs site for iPhone access

Internet giant Google said Wednesday that it has redesigned its mobile portal to better accommodate Apple iPhone users.

Steve Kanefsky, a software engineer on the Google mobile team, revealed that the introduction of a device with a large touch screen, wifi and a full blown Safari web browser, prompted him to create an application that would preload a user’s favourite Google products and allow instant switching between them.

Kanefsky used the Ajax functionality of the iPhone’s Safari browser to redesign the Google Mobile site so that it shows web results as well as image, local, and news results without the user having to repeat their search and allows the users to skip between applications using a new navigation bar.

“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,” he said.