Bing has launched an iPad app today, with a design for its search portal that it truly customized to the iPad experience. It’s a stark contrast to the Google app which offers a similar thing: access to search, news, and maps.
Much like the Bing website, the iPad app offers a visually rich landing page with a large high resolution image. Across the bottom of the screen are boxes that will take you quickly to weather, news, and movie information. The maps box takes you to a large map pinpointing your exact location that can be viewed as a road map, aerial or bird’s eye view.
There’s also tab for Trends, which will take you to a page with the day’s latest headlines – again all presented with the focus on imagery and not on “links.”
Visually, it’s a great experience on the iPad. But Bing has also made this app to echo that Flipboard reading experience too. You swipe through the headlines and searches. “No more back button,” says Bing. But the aspirations of the app seem much larger than that: “No more Safari.” “No more Google,” perhaps.
