Why Google Needs "Mobile First" for Search

Profit margin might be one reason why Google "needs" a device play to support its mobile search business. “On a tactical level, while we estimate mobile queries account for just 20 percent of searches, we believe they are growing four times to five times as quickly as desktop queries, Goldman Sachs analysts say.


"We estimate Google pays Apple roughly 75 percent revenue share to be the default in the Safari search bar, which we estimate accounts for roughly one third of all mobile queries,” Goldman Sachs says and GigaOm reports. 


In principle, Google could boost its profit margins on mobile search advertising by shifting more traffic (search queries) to its own devices, for example.