iPhones Tell Google That Mobile Search Patterns Have Changed

Google has conducted a survey aiming to find new mobile search patterns with Apple's iPhone and other smartphones, like those running Android. The study has proven to be a success, a report over at MediaPost News' Online Media Daily says, showing searchers on high-end devices like the iPhone are becoming more like computer-based searchers, enabling a shift that could change advertising and behavioral targeting for mobile search, according to Google researchers.

The report in question reveals that “Googlers” Maryam Kamvar, Melanie Kellar and Rajan Patel, as well as Ya Xu, from the Department of Statistics at Stanford University, have surprisingly found that many smartphone search queries are beginning to look a lot like typical desktop computer searches, “not only query length and diversity, but also in repeat search behavior,” the report cites Kamvar as saying.

“These trends on the high-end phones indicate to us that mobile search is starting to really 'work.' In other words, mobile search is a viable means for users to find information,” Google's researcher adds.

Softpedia note: in other words, Apple was right when the company suggested the iPhone was netbook enough for it. Then again, an Internet-optimized Apple notebook wouldn't hurt either.

“The research found the average number of words per iPhone query to be about the same as in computer queries, with slightly fewer characters per query,” researchers have reportedly found. “On average, an iPhone query consists of 2.93 words and 18.25 characters. The length of conventional mobile phone queries is the shortest of all the media, with an average query consisting of 2.44 words and 15.89 characters. That is a slight increase from the average of 2.35 words per query reported in the most recent analysis of mobile queries,” the report explains.

According to Kamvar, information on mobile search patterns can help Google better serve mobile customers. “The study shows that properly targeted mobile ads would enormously benefit the advertiser and the mobile user,” Kamvar shares. “This is because we find mobile users on the non-high-end devices who query a topic seem to be 'loyalists' to a particular topic.”