Google just released a Search app specifically for Windows RT. In other words, Microsoft Surface tablet users are no longer stuck with the Bing app. You can download Google Search now from the Get Your Google Back Web site, or from the official Windows Store.
If you’re a little confused why there’s a discrepancy with Google Search for Windows 8 and Windows RT, let me explain. On October 26, both Microsoft operating systems arrived: Windows 8 for all PCs, and Windows RT for tablets, including the Microsoft Surface.
The same day, Google launched a new campaign, which essentially showed users how to ditch IE and Bing and install Chrome and Search on Windows 8 instead. The newly released Google Search app, however, was only available for Windows 8, simply because Google hadn’t gotten around to making one for Windows RT.
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“We always aim to have our products available to as many people as we can and plan to launch updated versions of the Google Search app over time,” a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land on October 26. Just over two weeks later, and Google has released a Windows RT version of the app.
The delay here shows that Microsoft may have trouble coaxing developers to support Windows RT. If a company as big as Google decided Windows 8 was worth it, and Windows RT could wait, what will small companies and startups do?
Then again, we have to remember that Google and Microsoft are enemies, so this could have also been done on purpose. After all, Google just announced the Acer C7 Chromebook today, and Acer shunned Windows RT earlier this year.
See also – The old, yet new firestorm: Windows RT is restricted, limiting the performance and API access of certain apps and Windows 8’s app landscape: Healthy, lagging, or sick?
Image credit: Asif Akbar
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