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Google makes a first pass at an iPhone mail page: "Could do better"

Google has made a nod in the direction of iPhone and iPod Touch users online. Initial responses, however, ask why so many special iPhone features are disabled.

The story appeared yesterday on LifeHacker, saying that it has "optimised" for the iPhone. Not everybody seems to agree.

The main report was enthusiastic:

Google has updated their mobile homepage for iPhone users for quick and easy access to all of your Google apps with a simple, fast, and attractive tabbed interface.

The report referred to "iPhone-optimised interfaces for Gmail, Gcal, GReader, and a More tab that provides access to Docs, SMS, GOOG-411, News, Picasa web albums, Blogger, and Notebook."

As can be seen from reader responses below the story, not everybody was quite so sure:

...the biggest pain is its insistence on loading all items within the Reader interface. You can choose to render articles as optimised for the iPhone (which usually cuts out peripheral but useful features like site navigation and comments) or as full HTML, but there's no way to simply open the article in a new tab... the problem is that pages loaded within Reader have zooming -- both by pinching and tapping -- disabled. HUGE headache there.

The story also noted that the recent addition of IMAP in Gmail

"has made it that much easier to access and sync your Gmail online and off, but with the simple access to Gmail and other Google apps through the new and improved homepage, it may be just as simple if not more so to use their online portal—especially if you're a Google Apps junkie."

Join in the debate here.