26 February 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Google leads mobile web in USA

Search seraph Google rules the mobile web in the United States, according to a new report from browser maker Opera Software.

The study found that Google searches accounted for over nine per cent of total online page views from mobile web users in the USA last month. Directnews.co.uk reports that Yahoo! placed second with a 4.3 per cent share of page views, while Microsoft's search engine Bing surprisingly placed much lower, with only 0.03 per cent.

The trend is different in the UK, where the report found that only 9.7 per cent of all mobile web use was taken up by search engines, with Google taking a 7.2 per cent share of the UK mobile market.

This corresponds to findings revealed earlier this month, when the GSMA Mobile Media Metrics report revealed that social networking was leading the way in the UK, with Facebook being the most popular site for UK mobile users. The social networking site accounted for 2.2 billion minutes of mobile web use in Britain, compared to Google's second place of 396 million minutes.

The UK's love of mobile social networking was made even clearer last week, with a report from Sparkler revealing that 18 per cent of young men access social networks from their phones before even getting out of bed in the morning.

Opera's co-founder Jon von Tetzchner explained: "Search and social networking are the twin pillars of mobile web use worldwide."

Opera's browser product was found to be the world's fifth most popular web browser in December, accounting for 2.4 per cent of the global market, and it was revealed earlier this month that more than 50 million people regularly use the browser worldwide - representing an increase of 150 per cent compared to this time last year.

With the recent news that Windows users in Europe will be offered a choice of web browser - a choice which includes Opera - the company is likely to see its share increase further still in 2010.