People Search Digest

It seems like everyone has a mobile device with Internet access. Whether it is a Blackberry or an iPhone, most people have online access everywhere they go, all the time. And, like most technological advances, it is both a blessing and a curse. It’s great to be able to prove your friends wrong at a restaurant when you’re having a debate over which actor played Hap in The Tiger Makes Out (it was a very young Dustin Hoffman). However, it also means you are chained to your inbox. Unfortunately, as it stands right now, mobile browsers take forever to load up. That’s why mobile applications customized for your phone are a better alternative, and Google is no exception to the rule.

The Google Mobile team has been working extra hard to make their mobile search, Gmail, and Map applications faster. If an application is not working fast enough, people won’t use it. This holds true not only for mobile devices, but for home web browsers as well. Applications are great because it allows developers to modify the performance of the service to meet the demands of the device.

Unfortunately, even with all the recent changes to the Google Mobile interface, it leaves us wanting more. Google has done an excellent job with the mobile interface, the search, and the address auto-completion… but as long as we can use our Blackberry mail to fetch all our Gmail for us at twice the speed of Google Mobile, we’re not going to be making the change. After all, What’s the use of having Gmail at your fingertips when it takes the whole cab ride home to load? We’re rooting for Google Mobile, but we need another round of updates.