Rumored: GoogleDeveloping a keyboard for the iPhone

GOOGLE has been developing a third-party keyboard foriOS that would put the company’s search engine in a highly used part of the interface. The keyboard, which incorporates a variety of search options, has been in development for months, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s unclear whether or when Google plans to release it. The company declined to comment.

 For the basics, the Google Keyboard for iOS will supposedly also have gesture input, meaning that swiping action that has become more common among keyboards, except for Apple's. That is pretty much on par with the Android version, but that's where the similarities end. The iOS version will supposedly have more search-related functionality than the Android version, which is limited to doing search by voice.

The keyboard is designed to boost the number of Google searches on iOS. While the company all but holds a monopoly on the global search market, there’s evidence that mobile search is proving much less lucrative for Google than the desktop. Using publicly available numbers, journalist Charles Arthur argued in October that half of smartphone users perform zero searches per day. (Using the same math, Arthur said desktop users perform an average of 1.23 searches per day.) 

 The Google iOS keyboard will have dedicated buttons for doing web searches as well as image and GIF searches, all powered by Google search of course. It is a not so subtle strategy to get iOS users searching more, using Google's search engine, of course. Despite having its own mobile platform, Google has long accepted that it cannot ignore the iPhone using masses. After all, thousands of users searching on their iPhones is definitely good for business. And search, and the accompanying ads, is Google's main business after all.

Source: TheVerge