Google App for iPhone - It's Okay

When many folks were asking what was going on with Steve Jobs, I was wondering what was going on with Google.

At least Jobs showed.  Google, lauded as a great mobile partner in the past, was not highlighted at all.  Upon seeing and using the Google Mobile App, I know why.  It's a decent app by all means but coming from a company like Google, I had expected much more.

GMA allows a one click access to all of Google's iPhone friendly apps like mail, reader, and gTalk.  Quick search for contacts on your iPhone functions adequately.

The best part of the apps is the suggestions it offers during Googling.  This feature alone saved GMA from two stars and gave it an average of three stars on iTunes.

There is so much more Google can do with the app.  I don't like having to use GMA and be made to go go to Safari just to access gTalk or Mail.  I am able to grasp a reason why Google want to do this in trying to maintain its image as a true Web 2.0 company.  Maybe but I don't buy it.

I wonder if Google put out the app on the iPhone as a test bed for what we're likely to see much more of on Android.  As one review called GMA a "Google Desktop" for the iPhone.

Conclusion:  GMA is a good app but falls short of what Google is capable of.  Apple has made a very easy iPhone developer environment and  it does seem like Google did more than sent a couple of guys to work on this.  Maybe once Google is finished getting Android out the door, we'll see one or two of Google's Web services integrated into GMA.

I will take Google at its word that GMA is primarly a search app and that the rest of Google's great iPhone apps will only accessible only on Safari.  As a search app, it deserves 4 stars, with an asterisk.  That asterisk is that we want to see more in the next version.

Note:   I hope an enterprising independent developer can bring those Google services and others like Yahoo or Microsoft's Mesh together into one Swiss Knife app.  Is that possible?

Another note:  Back to Android, it'll be interested to see how Google will balance the two platforms.  Seriously, one word from Google about how Android is better or more open than Apple's offering, dude, given the egos at play here...personally, I love to see that happen.