Google is coming at Apple’s iPhone even harder.

Google is purchasing Sparrow, a tiny start-up that makes a popular app for using Gmail on the iPhone. The news first came from Sparrow in a brief blog post .

The companies did not disclose the acquisition price, but one person briefed on the deal said it was several million dollars — a very small amount of money for Google.

“We’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision,” Dom Leca, Sparrow’s chief executive, wrote in the post. That vision is something beyond an “intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience,” he indicated, but he didn’t say what.

It’s possible, however, to see important ways that Google can use Sparrow to gain a bigger presence on the iPhone at a time when Apple is trying to move Google away from the iPhone experience by building Apple versions of things like maps .

In an interview last March, Mr. Leca said that Apple made it difficult to get content from third parties on the phone.

“Bringing up all of the other tasks from Facebook, Twitter, Google and stuff like this is something that we can add,” he said. “It seems necessary for mail and that isn’t there because of political reasons.”

In other words, it doesn’t happen because Apple doesn’t want it to.

If iPhone users can get a good version of Gmail via Sparrow, and that version opens Google Maps when the customer taps an address in the e-mail, Google has a new beachhead on Apple. What else, including a browser, might open through a communications app?

Google gave few details about its plans in a statement. “The Sparrow team has always put their users first by focusing on building a seamlessly simple and intuitive interface for their e-mail client,” the company said. “We look forward to bringing them aboard the Gmail team, where they’ll be working on new projects.”

Sparrow is located in Paris, but the five-person team will most likely eventually move to Mountain View, Calif.

During last month’s Google I/O conference for software developers, Sundar Pichai, the head of Google’s Chrome browser and operating system, announced a version of the Chrome browser for the iPhone.

He discussed the possibility of opening maps through e-mail. While he said he was uncertain about whether Apple would let users “choose their defaults,” he was keen to see the Chrome browser get more use on iPhones. “The great thing about the browser,” he said, “is that it gives a way to use all our services.”

Not what Apple has in mind, but maybe Sparrow can make that happen.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/goog...-got-mail/