Google's influential search engine has hit a tipping point in technology's shift to smartphones.
More
search requests are now being made on mobile devices than on personal
computers in the U.S. and many other parts of the world.
The
milestone, announced at a digital advertising conference, serves as
another reminder of how dramatically online behavior has changed since
2007.
That's when
Apple released the first iPhone, leading to a wave of similar devices
that have made it easier for people to stay connected to the Internet
wherever they go.
The
upheaval has rocked PC makers and other tech companies such as
Microsoft with businesses tied to sales of desktop and laptop
computers.
Google
has been able to adapt better than most companies, partly because its
search engine and other services are embedded in the popular Android
mobile operating system, but it hasn't been totally unscathed.
Google's
average ad prices have been declining for the past three-and-half
years, partly because marketers so far have been unwilling to pay as
much for the commercial message displayed on the smaller screens of
smartphones.
The company,
though, says mobile ad prices have been steadily climbing and will
continue to do so as marketers recognize the value of being able to
connect with prospective customers at the precise moment that they are
looking for someplace to eat, or comparing products on a smartphone
while standing in a store.
'The
future of mobile is now,' says Jerry Dischler, a Google vice president
in charge of the company's 'AdWords' service for creating online
marketing campaigns.
Besides
in the U.S., Google's mobile search requests are outstripping requests
in nine other countries. Japan is the only other country that Google is
identifying.
The Mountain View, California, company isn't specifying just how many mobile search requests it is getting.
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