Your Google search results are about to look different — that is, if you’re comparing mobile results to those on your desktop. As originally reported by Search Engine Land, Google will soon create a separate mobile index, “one that will be the main or ‘primary’ index that the search engine uses to respond to queries.” It will be distinct from the desktop index, which Search Engine Land says will “not be as up-to-date as the mobile index.”
The report is based upon a keynote address given by Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst at Google, who spoke at Pubcon. While he didn’t outline any particular time frame for these changes to happen, he later confirmed to media that the new mobile index would arrive within “months.”
Google has long been making moves toward a mobile-first approach. Already, the web giant requires sites and online publishers to make their content mobile friendly in order to be properly indexed, and Google also recently debuted Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), which allows for news articles found in Google’s search results to load faster on mobile devices.
Still, little is known about how the new mobile index will work. How different will it really be from the desktop version? Will it contain exclusively mobile-optimized results? These remain mysteries that have yet to be solved.
Of course, given the rapid growth of mobile in the last several months, it comes as little surprise that tech giants across the board are fine-tuning their strategies. A report from comScore released in April noted that mobile represents 65 percent of digital media time, and the desktop is but a “secondary touch point” for a burgeoning number of digital users.
So get ready, friends. Your phone will soon become the source of all information — at least, if Google has its way.
