Google2Go Brings Google (And More) To Windows Mobile
Feb 29th, 2008 by Tariq Bamadhaj
Google2Go was just released this week and already has caused quite a storm in the Windows Mobile world. I was rather interested with Google2Go because it filled a void that Google had created (in my opinion). You see, while the iPhone has a specially designed suite of Google applications which makes accessing them so easy on their platform, Google decided it was not necessary for the Windows Mobile platform. But I guess the developers of this software had other ideas and thus created this application.
Introduction
Google2Go is similar to Yahoo2Go. It was developed by Bryan Burkholder, one of the two behind The Tech Turf. Currently at 0.272B, this software can be considered at it’s infant stage but the potential for it is big. It’s free for you to use. It’s a .exe file so there’s no need for installation. Just copy to your device and run it from there. Creating a shortcut to it would be a good idea if you plan on using it frequently. So how does it fair?
Only qVGA Landscape
One thing you’ll notice when using Google2Go is that it only supports 320×240 landscape resolutions. If you try to launch it while in portrait mode, the application would look rather weird (like in the screen shot above). Also, there have been reports that it does not work on VGA screens. A quick check with the developer shows that he is aware of the problems and plans to fix them.
SIP Does Not Pop Up
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| SIP not coming up | SIP comes up |
Well it’s not all the time but it does happen frequent enough. I realized that when I tap on a box that is part of the application, my SIP does not pop up. For example, say I choose maps and want to enter my search criteria, my SIP is not there and there is no way to launch it (unless you mapped your SIP to pop up to a hardkey). However, when I tap on a box when I am on a website within that application (such as Gmail or even searching on Google), the SIP does pop up.
I guess the reason for this is tied to the landscape issue. Most Windows Mobile devices are in landscape mode when their QWERTY keyboard is slid out so I guess that is why no SIP pops up. Just a random guess.
Google Services Available
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| Google Search | Google Maps | Gmail |
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| Google Calendar | Google Reader | Google Docs |
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| Picasa | Google News | Google Notes |
Not all Google services are available, just the more commonly available ones like the ones you see above. Still I think this is a decent list which should suit most users. The Google services are identical to the ones that you would see if you were to access them through Pocket Internet Explorer or Opera Mini but the idea of having it all consolidated into one place is great.
I initially thought that this was just an application that made use of Pocket Internet Explorer but it was more than that. For example, when you access your Gmail, you would notice several buttons just above the icons which corresponds to the various shortcuts that you can use. When you go to another feature (say search), you can change between searching the web and images. While not available in all features, it is a rather nice option to have.
Other Services Available
It’s not just Google services that you can access with Google2Go but a few others as well. There’s Amazon.com and eBay.com as well as Weather.com. This proved useful for me because I used these services rather frequently but I wonder how users who do not would find it. There’s also Wapedia (sort of like a mobile encyclopedia) and Dictionary.com for you to access from it.
Settings?
At the moment, there are no settings that can be configured but considering that the developer put an icon to it suggests that that could soon change. Which I think is a great idea because everyone would have their own preferences as to which features/functions they would like to have. I also hope that the developer would consider letting users choose which browser to use to view the sites. While Pocket Internet Explorer might be sufficient for now, it would be great to use Opera Mobile 9.5 or even SkyFire when they come out.
Conclusion
This is a really great application. Sure there are lot of bugs in it. Sure the icons remind you of Apple’s iPhone (the developer is working on changing this). But I think once these kinks are worked out, this application would be installed on many a users’ device. It’s simple, it’s clean and it works. Google may have forgotten about Windows Mobile users but thankfully Bryan Burkholder did not.
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I only use Gmail so for me it would be an extra step to have this program. But I defenitely see the advantages for people who use lots of Google services.
I wonder how the Google would feel about this?
Well if Google feels upset, it’s their fault since they did not want to create one for the Windows Mobile platform.
But Apple also had a pretty strict policy when it came to iPhone icons for Windows Mobile. At the moment we see them everywhere so there doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore, but still, I wonder if Google could and would take steps against something like this.
Don’t get me wrong, I hope they don’t! But I assume that if Google already had plans to do something similar in the (near) future, they want to advertise their own solution and fight the alternatives.
That’s a really nice overview Tariq!
Thanks Peter. Glad you enjoyed it
Tariq said “I also hope that the developer would consider letting users choose which browser to use to view the sites. While Pocket Internet Explorer might be sufficient for now, it would be great to use Opera Mobile 9.5 or even SkyFire when they come out.”
I believe that’s not easy to do, this kind of software is very dependant on PIE, it invokes functions of PIE that aren’t in other browsers.
It seems to be very one useful software but I will wait until it’s out of beta state to use it.
Thanks for pointing that out. I ain’t a developer so I’m not familiar with the complexity of codes. But who knows, maybe someone will take me up on that
I’m also not sure how these kind of things work, and I also haven’t tried Google2Go, but if someone has set Opera to be the default browser so that the PIE links are overwritten, wouldn’t Opera be the default browser which gets used by all programs that try to access a browser?
Or could the program find a way to always use PIE, even if it is not the default browser?
Just curious.
Yeah that’s what I was thinking as well. Maybe PJMDS can shed some light on this?
I really can’t say exactly if the program can or cannot use something else than PIE, if the program only sends links to the default browser it’s possible but sometimes programs do more than that and I don’t know if that’s the case, only by looking at the source code I can say if it’s or not possible.
What about EtenBlog2Go ?
I’m all ears for EtenBlog 2 Go. Sounds interesting. I wonder who else would be interested
I’m almost certain that the program is coded in Visual Basic so it’s easy to add stuff, the screen size detection and adjust is easy to do
In the blog they say that the source code will be released
If there’s something cool and useful to add I might give it a try
Just got the news that Google2Go has removed all non-Google items so maybe that is something we can look into?
Thanks for this article! It’s always interesting to find something new. Too bad it doesn’t support the square 240×240 Treo screens. Will keep my eye on this.
No problemo May. In due time. The developer is definitely working on it
I’m not so sure that I’d actually use this, but I definitely like the nice shiny look. Most of what I use with the other Google services is way too text heavy for me to want to deal with it on the phone (barring extreme lack of internet connection through other means).