Google searches on smartphones surpass desktops for the first time

Google searches on smartphones surpass desktops for the first time

In ten countries, more users perform Google searches on smartphones than desktops.

In a landmark moment, Google has confirmed that in ten countries, including the United States and Japan, more users perform Google searches on smartphones than on desktops. Outside these two countries mentioned, Google was silent on which other countries had “gone mobile,” so to speak.

According to Searchengineland, Google bundles together its tablet and desktop figures, so “mobile” includes only searches being run from smartphones. The company did clarify that mobile queries included both mobile browser-based searches and searchers run through Google’s mobile search apps.

The search engine giant’s announcement is somewhat surprising, since not too long ago, Comscore released a report showing the relative volume of US-based search queries on PCs, tablets and smartphones. The report found that in Q4 2014, US mobile queries were roughly 29 percent of total search volumes, with desktop queries at 45.5 percent across the entire industry. So either the report is wrong, Google is seeing something different from the rest of the industry, or mobile searches are growing so fast the survey could not capture it. Google, for its part, refused to speculate on how its own numbers meshed with Comscore’s, according to Searchengineland.

With mobile searches on Google now outnumbering desktop searches, Google is tweaking its ad words program to adapt to the shift. The Verge reports that the company is releasing new types of ads, specifically tailored to catch the attention of mobile users.  Naturally, these tend to be picture-heavy, and feature compact, mobile formats. Last month, Google also tweaked its search algorithm to favor mobile-optimized sites.

The message is clear. The people have gone mobile, and now, Google will follow.

 

 

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