The World In Your Pocket

It’s true you can now go anywhere you want at the swipe of your finger after Google Earth became available on Android 2.1. It also exemplifies the closing gap between what you can do on a desktop and what you can do on your phone.

So is the mobile experience likely to enjoy parity with the desktop? Well things certainly are improving.

Desktop Features in the Palm of Your Hand

Google have invested a lot of money and talk into their Nexus One phone so it comes as little surprise that this is the only handset able to accommodate this tasty little feature. Although expect it to roll out on other handsets as they upgrade their version of Android to 2.1.

After plenty of playing around by Google’s engineers they have managed to transpose the 3-D rich interfaces of Google Earth, commonly found on your desktop, onto the smartphone. This includes the Roads layer – very popular for instantly finding out where you are.

However, the crème de la crème is the voice recognition platform, common in Android software, which works in harmony with Google Earth. So if you want to find an Italian restaurant in Leeds just speak “Italian restaurant Leeds” and a number of searches will be displayed on the Google Earth interface.

Still a Long Way to Go for Mobile

This is a cute new application for the Android software, which has already stirred quite a bit of excitement and it will no doubt strengthen Android’s position in the market. However, mobile experience overall still has a long way to go to compete with the capabilities of the desktop. Businesses, though, should take note of the rising prominence of the mobile online market!