Google has now incorporated universal search in Google Suggest for mobile search. The company did this on the PC last year.

In selected situations this allows users to get “answers” in the Suggest drop-down options menu rather than waiting for a SERP. Here’s “weather” on the PC and on mobile for example:

There’s more user tolerance of “links” on the PC than in mobile and so getting to answers on smartphones more quickly is critical to enable Google to maintain and grow mobile search usage.

Running in the background here is the competitive universe of specialized apps (iPhone, Android, etc.) that offer a richer experience but may be somewhat harder to access in some cases. Thus Google is trying to establish its all-purpose utility on mobile devices. Voice search is also a key to doing this.

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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