Google is from the Future, and They Want Us to Join Them

 In News, Trending

Google’s vision of the future is mobile.

In case you missed the much-hyped event in the mobile tech and SEO worlds, Google updated its search algorithm to boost mobile-friendly websites in its search results. About two weeks have gone by and it appears that we’ve all survived Mobilegeddon.

Now that we know our Google ranks have been preserved, let’s take a deep breath and consider what this move means for the broader marketing communications ecosystem. The spectrum of technology adoption has been broadening in recent years, with some companies investing a bare minimum in customer-facing technology and others making big bets on cutting-edge products.

This tension created a divide for back-end technology support systems and within the customer experience landscape. From a back-end systems management perspective, there is a lot of infrastructure investment that has to go into resources forecasting. A company that today has a simple webfront may decide tomorrow to ramp it up with retail tracking and multimedia elements. This taxes the telecommunications and service provider networks that have to stay ahead of demand.

Google’s focus is on where the concentration of future development will take place. The company has been investing in building fiber networks to build new business models and technologies for the future. A significant driver of demand for fiber assets will be an acceleration of the broad-based consumer shift to mobile.

According to a comScore study we crossed a threshold in mid-2014, and now the majority of media consumption takes place in mobile apps. Currently, a smartphone is the device of choice for 80 percent of internet users. And, importantly for retailers, nearly 60 percent of consumers are “multiscreening” or using more than one device to research a purchase. For 48 percent of users, product research starts with a search engine and more than half of consumers want to make a purchase within the hour.

Consumers now demand a dynamic brand experience that meets them when and where they want it. In many cases, companies have not kept pace with this demand, delivering a stagnant, web-based interaction that is clunky on a mobile device and does not meet a customer’s need for immediacy and responsiveness in a transaction.

Google has three good reasons for gently nudging the industry to embrace mobile:

  1. Google is working hard to develop a fiber network that can compete with the established telecommunications carriers in a way that hasn’t been done for a century. The best way for the company to monetize this substantial infrastructure investment is to drive mobile demand.
  2. As a corollary to monetizing its assets, Google will be able to marshal its forces behind developing business models and assets for the mobile space, rather than devoting substantial resources to areas with less growth potential.
  3. Google sees the writing on the trend graphs and is pushing us to be our best selves by investing in mobile. Companies are shooting themselves in the foot by not optimizing a mobile brand presence. Whether altruistically or not, Google knows that businesses will perform better by integrating a mobile strategy and now they are forcing this movement.

How are you preparing for a mobile-friendly future?

Let Us Know in the Comments Section Below!

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