Worldwide, More Than Half Of Google’s Searches Happen On Mobile

Earlier this year, Google announced that for the first time, it was seeing more search activity on mobile than desktop. The caveat was that this was for 10 countries, including the US. Today, Google has now said this is the case worldwide.

It was last May when Google said that more searches were happening on mobile devices than desktop in the US, Japan and eight other countries that weren’t named. Today, Google’s senior vice president of search, Amit Singhal, reiterated that statement when speaking at Recode’s Code Mobile event, as reported by The Verge.

Old news? No. We followed up with Google, which told Search Engine Land that Singhal was referring to the fact that worldwide, mobile searches now exceed desktop.

It is possible that in some individual countries, desktop still tops mobile. The worldwide is for all searches, from all countries, lumped together, Google told us.

It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean that desktop searches have diminished. Stats on desktop search from comScore routinely show the overall amount has risen from month to month. Rather, it’s that mobile searches have been a growing new segment that have caught up and now overtaken desktop search.

On the whole, desktop search has grown. As a percentage, it has dropped. That’s because we’re living in what I’ve called an “always-on search world,” where we’re always able to search. Got a query? Your phone is always in reach, as opposed to the past when you’d have to get to wherever your computer was. So the overall search queries happening have grown.

On a related subject, last month we reported that despite the growth in apps, search remains strong. Google Search in mobile browsers is big, according to a Morgan Stanley report based on comScore data. Google Search within its app is even bigger. In fact, Google Search is rated as the fourth most popular app overall in the US.

Singhal also said Google has now indexed 100 billion links within apps. This means that when people are within Google’s search results, and Google knows they have a particular app installed, it can jump them from the results into the app version of a Web page.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.