PreCentral: Google fixes search on webOS, makes things work like they ought

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A few days back Google made a change somewhere along the line that kicked webOS users back into the horrid days of WAP browsers. It was a change that shook us to our core as we were reduced to a wholly unacceptable three search results at a time and Google's sad attempts to give us mobile-formatted pages that required another tap to get to the content we wanted (as we type this we realize how spoiled we must sound). Never fear, for while it took Google a few days to come around to their senses and fix whatever coding travesty that brought forth this reign of terror, they have fixed it.

So your TouchPads and Pres and Veers and Pixis can all safely waltz about the Googles, getting their ten results and tabbed headers and everything else Google to which we've grown accustomed. It works both in the browser's search bar and Just Type/Universal Search, with no workarounds needed on your end.

Additionally, Google's actually improved things a bit. It seems this episode prompted them to actually pick up a webOS device and see how things worked on it. While the TouchPad has by-and-large received the full Google desktop experience (sans page previews) across all of the various avenues of search (everything, images, news, YouTube, etc), the version of Google served up to smartphones has been tweaked.

If there was one saving grace about getting kicked back to the old-style search, it was that Google Image Search worked. With the last update to Google mobile search the image search function received a mobile-optimized formatting with an even grid and full-screen previews before sending you to the actual page or image. Problem is, it never worked fully right on webOS, and then at one point it stopped working all together, not allowing webOS smartphone users to view anything more than the grid of thumbnails.

The old-style image search reverted to a less-organized set of thumbnails, displaying images at their original aspect ratio instead of perfect squares, but at least you could tap on them to view the image or the site. The updated back-to-the-new Google search on webOS smartphones melds in the old Google Image search with the rest of the new Google search, letting you finally get back to viewing the images you want. And if you're on a TouchPad you've got the full Google Image search experience, down to specifying image sizes, content, and coloration. It's good to be back.

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