Google: Mobile search traffic surging, new ad solutions coming

Google anticipates significant growth for its arsenal of mobile services according to executives who participated in a Monday webcast outlining the digital services giant's wireless vision. "Google has bet big on mobile," Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said, stating that its mobile search traffic has grown five times over the past two years. "When we see desktop usage decline, like when people go out to lunch, that's when we see mobile spike. We think these are brand-new searches that we would never have seen previously." Services like Google Maps for Mobile are also seeing massive consumer adoption, with more than 50 million active users--eventually, Google will optimize all of its services for the mobile platform, Gundotra said.

Noting that a quarter of Android and iPhone users who download applications to their smartphones spend up to two hours each day with those apps, Gundotra also touted the possibilities of app-based mobile advertising, and said Google is presently working with handpicked partners including Urbanspoon and Shazam to trial new in-app ad solutions.

Despite the looming threat that Google will pull its search services from China over ongoing censorship battles with the nation's government, CFO Patrick Pichette said he believes the company's Android mobile operating system "should flourish" in the Chinese market. Appearing on the webcast alongside Gundotra, Pichette contended that Android is an open-source platform available to a variety of manufacturing partners and should perform favorably in China regardless of Google's squabbles with legislators.

For more on Google's mobile outlook:
- read this PCWorld article

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