Google: We’re Now Bigger On Mobile Than Desktop In Ten Countries

Google may have been born on the desktop computer, but in an increasingly mobile-friendly world, it seems the tide may be turning in terms of which platform is now the company’s main focus.

The search giant has revealed that it now serves more searches via its mobile platform than desktop in several major markets around the world, including the US and Japan.

In a blog post for its advertising platform AdWords, the company revealed that its mobile presence (combining searches on smartphones and tablets) is actually greater than that of its desktop impact in ten countries, although it wouldn’t say who the other eight are.

Dialled in

“Billions of times per day, consumers turn to Google for I want-to-know, I want-to-go, I want-to-do, and I want-to-buy moments. And at these times, consumers are increasingly picking up their smartphones for answers,” wrote Jerry Dischler, AdWords’ vice president of product management.

“This presents a tremendous opportunity for marketers to reach people throughout all the new touchpoints of a consumer’s path to purchase.”

The revelation follows the news last month that Google was altering its search algorithms to favour mobile-friendly web pages, following a continual growth in mobile search.

In a move designed to encourage companies build mobile-friendly sites, Google says it expects the change to have a “significant impact” on the results users see,

As part of today’s news, Google also introducing smartphone-optimised ad formats that it hopes will entice users to click on mobile ads than its traditional AdWords. These include picture-heavy automobile ads that show users a gallery of their dream ride before directing them to dealerships, and hotel ads that combine availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into one compact mobile format.

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