Google Officially Confirms More Searches Come From Mobile Than Desktop

It has been a long time coming, but it has finally happened. Mobile has officially overtaken desktop search, according to a new statement from the company.

Informal reports from Google last year indicated it was all but an inevitability that mobile search queries would officially take the lead this year, and Google finally confirmed the news along with a range of new AdWords and Google Display Network announcements.

The company said “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan,” however it also declined to elaborate what other countries were involved or how recently this shift happened.

Google did note that mobile queries include mobile browser-based searches, as well as those coming from Google’s mobile search apps.

Google did not include tablets with mobile devices, instead choosing to group searches from tablets with those from desktop devices.

The claims have come under fire from some, who are skeptical in the face of contrary data from outside sources. ComScore previously released a report and graphic comparing the volume of US-based search queries across PC, tablets, and smartphones, which showed only 29 percent of total searches were coming from smartphones and tablets in Q4 2014.

If Google’s data is correct, it would imply either ComScore’s was faulty or mobile search experienced an incredible rise over just a few months. For now, that much is unclear because Google is not commenting on the ComScore data.