Google, says Scoble, has created a brand new just-for-iPhone demo page for their search engine-- yes, apparently they're still doing search. I used it within my browser (using my standard search engine test word: "Batman"), and it seemed to work just fine. It's all Javascript, as well, so it's fast and simple. The one drawback is that you can't actually go back after you've done a search (since it all loads in the same window), but it's Google, so odds are you'll find what you're looking for right away.

But the problem with this goes right back to what Scott was talking about the other day-- we aren't supposed to be getting half the web on the iPhone, we're supposed to be getting the real web. In this case, there's not much to complain about-- this really is Google, minus the extra content and the ads. However, the links actually go to regular browser windows (not iPhone formatted sites), and if you hit "More Results" at the bottom of the page, it takes you to a normal, full-screen Google page anyway. So what's the point? Yes, this is just a demo, but why bother making an iPhone specific page in the first place? iPhone users should be able to browse to the Google homepage like everyone else.

Thanks, Josh!

Update: This page is not quite what it seems-- it's not actually an iPhone version of Google. A Google spokesperson contacted us to say that it's actually a Google demo for how web developers can use the Google AJAX search API in their iPhone apps. That explains why it's not much more than the main Google page, and why it has no ads. It's not designed to replace the Google main page (although, as a side bonus, that's a pretty good one). Instead, it was created by the Google API devs to show off how the AJAX search API can be used to make apps for the iPhone.