Home Google Mobile Web: Now With Interactive Weather

Google Mobile Web: Now With Interactive Weather

Recently, a tweet made the rounds criticizing the iPhone weather app, imagining Steve Jobs lurking in the background, taking sadistic joy in creating entirely random weather forecasts. If you share a similar sentiment, then you’ll want to check out Google’s latest update – a nifty, localized weather feature on its mobile website.

It’s nothing fancy or sophisticated, but it will quickly tell you what the weather is supposed to be like, wherever you are, at incremental times throughout the day.

“We’d been wanting to build a fun, useful, app-like way to display weather information on our search results pages in the mobile browser,” wrote user experience designer Nick Fey and software engineer Michael van Ouwerkerk. “So we pulled together a user experience designer and team of engineers and built a new weather search results snippet that lets you actually play with the results.”

The solution is simple, multi-platform and just requires that you search for “weather” using Google in your mobile browser. Upon searching for “weather”, you’ll receive  a standard summary of the basic conditions, but the slider is where the neat stuff is at. As you grab and move the slider through the next 12-hour period, the sun will change to clouds or raindrops or moon depending on the forecast and the expected temperature, wind speed and humidity will change with it. Even the background will dim as the slider moves into the nighttime hours.

So if you, like some others on Twitter, like to imagine that Steve Jobs is lurking in the back rooms of Apple, deviously creating imaginary forecasts to mess with your day, give Google’s new weather feature a try. If you have similar visions about now ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the feature works on Android, too.

About ReadWrite’s Editorial Process

The ReadWrite Editorial policy involves closely monitoring the tech industry for major developments, new product launches, AI breakthroughs, video game releases and other newsworthy events. Editors assign relevant stories to staff writers or freelance contributors with expertise in each particular topic area. Before publication, articles go through a rigorous round of editing for accuracy, clarity, and to ensure adherence to ReadWrite's style guidelines.

Get the biggest tech headlines of the day delivered to your inbox

    By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. Unsubscribe anytime.

    Tech News

    Explore the latest in tech with our Tech News. We cut through the noise for concise, relevant updates, keeping you informed about the rapidly evolving tech landscape with curated content that separates signal from noise.

    In-Depth Tech Stories

    Explore tech impact in In-Depth Stories. Narrative data journalism offers comprehensive analyses, revealing stories behind data. Understand industry trends for a deeper perspective on tech's intricate relationships with society.

    Expert Reviews

    Empower decisions with Expert Reviews, merging industry expertise and insightful analysis. Delve into tech intricacies, get the best deals, and stay ahead with our trustworthy guide to navigating the ever-changing tech market.