In a surprising move, Google has released an application for Windows Phone 7 which allows you to use Google Search on your device. Today marks the US launch of the platform, and it makes sense that the company announce the application now, otherwise they would essentially let Bing have free reign of the entire platform.
In announcement on their Google Mobile blog, the search giant said that the application is available now in the marketplace, and is the first iteration of the application for the Windows Phone 7. While the application obviously isn"t as integrated as Bing in the mobile OS, it"s great to have a choice. The application currently allows you to search the web, images, local and news.
It even already features auto-suggestions, and uses the location to provide a search. It looks like the application just uses a browser page to display the results, but it isn"t clear from the pictures.
The application is officially available now, but may not be able in some markets. In our test, we weren"t able to find it in the Windows Phone 7 marketplace just yet. Google didn"t publically say anything about creating Windows Phone 7 applications before now, but it"s good to see the search giant bringing their offerings to the Windows Phone 7 platform, as well as those such as the iPhone.