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Google refreshed its Google Mobile App for the iPhone and iPod touch, renaming it Google Search app March 15.
The new redesigned app, available free for download from Apple’s iTunes App Store, now lets users swipe down to see the search bar or change settings when browsing through search results or looking at a Web page.
A new toolbar, accessible by swiping from left to right before or after a search, makes it easier for users to filter results on their iPhone or iPod touch.
Users may slice and dice results with the same refinements they find on the desktop version of Google, including by images, places, news, videos, shopping and other categories.
Google has also added an Apps button at the bottom of the screen to help users find other Google mobile apps.
As is its wont, the search engine also tried to make the search experience more efficient for users. Users who leave the Google Search app and return later can return to where they left off their search by tapping on the lower part of the page.
Alternatively, users may start a new search right away by tapping in the search box to type, tapping the microphone button to do a Google Voice Search or by tapping on the camera icon to use the Google Goggles visual search app.
Google boosted its Goggles, Voice Search, Search with My Location and Gmail apps, which users can check out by tapping the question mark above the Google logo in the app.
Google offers screenshots and a video demo of the new Google Search app for iPhone. So does Search Engine Land.
Google and Apple’s mobile app relationship endured a rocky 2009 and half of 2010, with Apple blocking Google Voice and forcing other apps, such as Google Latitude, to be Web apps instead of native to the iPhone.
Apple loosened its developer terms of service last summer and Google for the last 6 months or so has released official Voice, Latitude, Goggles, Places and other apps for the iPhone.
In fact, Google has been almost as religious about updating its apps to run well on the iPhone as it has for apps running on handsets powered by its own Android operating system.
This is a testament to the importance of the iOS platform and the devices that run on it. After all, the iPhone has shipped more than 100 million units since 2007. Android isn’t quite there yet, but it will be.