Google launches web ad promoting its iOS Dev team, encourages iOS developers to do work that ‘matters’

Jake Smith | Dec 28 2012 - 11:35 am PT

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG2Wn2dm5-4″]

Since the removal of YouTube, and Maps as preloaded Google apps within iOS, Google has been especially adept at developing its own set of iOS apps. We previously detailed how Google wants to own the iOS ecosystem on the apps level, providing users with an alternative universe to most of the core features of Apple’s mobile operating system. It appears Google now has a dedicated iOS app team which builds cohesive apps rather than having each business unit build its own apps.

Even with its dominance on the App Store top charts as of late, Google has launched a web ad campaign, including on the 9to5 sites, promoting its presence throughout iOS. Google detailed what its iOS apps have to offer in the video above, including: Google Search, YouTube, Chrome, and Gmail. Google Maps is noticeably absent (we assumed that is because of when this ad was made).

The focal point of the advertisement is Google’s attempt to recruit software engineers for its iOS mobile apps team. “Do cool things that matter” the advertisement brags, almost as if Apple’s set of apps doesn’t bring any benefit to iOS users. The advertisement links to a page with a full breakdown of what the Google iOS mobile apps team has to offer and a chance for prospective employees to apply for a job. “It’s fun. People have misconception that we just copy and paste existing Google products to the iOS platform. But we have a lot of freedom and try to innovate beyond anything that Google’s done so far,” the page states. “We are always working on ideas to push the envelope on mobile search, and we collaborate closely with Google Web Search engineers to implement new features.” Interestingly, the iOS mobile apps team appears to be working as one unit now, rather than each app being done by a separate group.

It is true that Google’s iOS apps have their own distinctive design language, much different from their Android counterparts. As an example, critics claimed that the Maps application on iOS is better than the Android app—something that Google doesn’t dispute.