Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Launching a Mobile Search Mission
Most of us spend a lot of time using search engines on the Internet. And the search engines we sum-
mon most often are Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Bing, at least in the United States. If you're in
China, chances are you search Baidu. In any event, all these search options are available on the iPad.
With the Safari version of iOS 7, Apple brought the previously separate address bar
and Search fields together into a single convenient, unified strip called the
smart search field,
following the path taken on most popular web browsers for PCs and Macs. Although you can
certainly use the virtual keyboard to type
google.com, yahoo.com,
or
bing.com
into this field,
Apple doesn't require that tedious effort. Instead, just type your search query directly in the
box. The big American-known search engines are available on the iPad, and you can switch
from one to another in Settings. If you've turned on a Chinese keyboard in Settings (see
Chapter
2
), you also see an option for a popular search engine in China called Baidu.
To conduct a web search on the iPad, tap the smart search field. You immediately see icons for your
favorite web destinations, with Apple betting on your frequent return visits. But when you start typ-
ing in the smart search field, a Google (or other) search mission commences, with Top Hits — an
educated guess really — shown at the top.
You see other search suggestions as you start tapping additional letters. In Figure
4-10
, for example,
typing the letters
le
yields such suggestions as Lexmark, LeBron James, and league of legends. Tap
any search results that look promising, or tap Go on the keyboard to immediately land on the Top
Hit. Or keep tapping out letters to generate more search results.
You can also find a search word or phrase on the very web page you have onscreen.
Initially you entered a search term in the Search field and scrolled to the bottom of the result-
ing list to tap On This Page. Because that was unknown to many users, Apple has added a
section labeled Find on Page. You're informed of the number of matches; if it's more than
one, you can move back and forth through them with the right- and left-pointing arrows at the
bottom of the screen.
