Over half of all Google searches now come from mobile devices

At Recode’s Code Mobile conference in Half Moon Bay, California, Google’s senior vice president of search, Amit Singhal, revealed that more than half of the company’s search inquiries now come from mobile devices.

“For the first time, we’re getting more searches on mobile devices than on desktop,” said Singhal during the conference.

Google includes a built-in search widget – search still reportedly generates most of Google’s ad revenue – in almost every Android device, which has helped the company’s search platform reach a much wider audience than ever before.

However, Google is increasingly facing advertisement competition from Facebook, which has morphed into an ad-supported money making machine. Apple’s App Store, which promotes its own iAd platform within its native apps, is also taking eyes away from the traditional mobile web. Because Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all revenue generated on iOS, the company obviously prefers to keep the mobile web an insular platform.

But perhaps what’s most interesting about these numbers is they’re indicative of the mobile internet shift much of the world has experienced over the last few years. Google defines mobile devices as any smartphone or tablet with a screen smaller than six inches in size. And as Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in late September, there 1.4 billion Android devices have been sold to date, eclipsing any previous computing platform. In other words, Google doesn’t have to worry just yet.

[source]The Verge[/source]