Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been speaking today at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) consumer electronics event in Berlin and has been outlining a future where search is super fast, highly personalised and omniscient.
Arguably the strongest emphasis in the presentation is the issue of speed, with Schmidt stating:
“Our new definition of Google, we’re trying to get you something fast – never underestimate the importance of fast.”
Some of this speed will be a result of underlying technology changes (e.g. the caffeine update) but Google has lofty ambitions to move towards such a personalised search that it will be able to predict your searches before you know you want to search. An interesting idea but certainly not without its challenges.
Other key highlights from the speech include:
- The mobile web is growing 8 times faster than the equivalent desktop web from 10 years ago
- 1 in 3 queries from smartphones relates to a local search (i.e. ‘something near where I am now’)
- Google’s mobile search traffic grew 50% in the first half of 2010
- Android users are growing by about 200,000 per day
- Search traffic from Android phones tripled in the first half of 2010
- Google Chrome now has 70 million users
- YouTube has more than two billion views per day, 160 million mobile views per day, with 24 hours of video being uploaded every minute
- 94 of the Top 100 AdAge advertisers use the Google Display Network
You can watch the full keynote speech here
