Qihoo 360 Launches a Mobile Search App, will Roll out In-app Search

Qihoo 360 launches the long-touted mobile search app today. Unsurprisingly, the app has voice search. What’s different between Qihoo way and others’ is two app icons, with one for voice search only, will be shown on your smartphone home screen. Currently it’s only available on Android.

Other features are similar to Wandoujia’s: users will be able to download some search results, videos, music/ringtones, e-books, themes, or wallpapers/pictures; some videos or music will automatically play.

The company said in-app search will be rolled out later. I heard that the company even invested in an HTML5-friendly development service hoping more HTML5 apps, which are more friendly to existing search services, will emerge.

When it comes to in-app search, Wandoujia now is ahead of many others. It has launched standards for third-party developers to have in-app content index-able by Wandoujia.

Other major players, Baidu and UC Web, encouraged developers to develop webapps/hybrid apps that makes indexing in-app content possible or easier.