Google heralds summer mobile boom

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 23 Aug 2007 at 10:48

Google has seen a spike in usage of its mobile services since May, partly offsetting the traditional summer slump in PC-based web surfing for the first time.

"We are seeing more and more mobile activity," Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products, told a web marketing conference in Silicon Valley.

Traffic to Google's maps, e-mail and mobile searches on mobile phones and wireless handheld devices rose 35% between May and June. That reversed the previous annual pattern in which both mobile phone and computer use declined, Mayer claimed.

The much anticipated US launch of Apple's iPhone in late June led to a jump of 40-50% in use of Google Maps on mobile phones, according to Mayer. Google Maps is one of the handful of featured applications on the iPhone.

Mobile use remained high into August, even as overall traffic searches surged then fell in the summer months. The traffic traditionally drops by 20-40% between May and June, as computer users go on holiday.

"I think this is sort of a sign that people are becoming savvier with their mobile devices, and that there are better devices available for the web while away from computers," Mayer claimed.

While the numbers of mobile users of Google search services remain tiny compared to the hundreds of millions of computer users, the higher traffic reflects the growing acceptance of the mobile internet, Mayer said.

Google's mobile traffic still comes largely from US users, however Japan and Europe are also seeing growing demand for services such as Gmail and mobile search.

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