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Rates for mobile search ads will exceed those for PC search ads thanks to the growing popularity of smartphones. Speaking in an analyst briefing, Google's engineering VP Vic Gundotra said the number of Google searches via mobile has increased fivefold over the past two years. Although he declined to predict when the crossover will take place, Gundotra says mobile ad rates have already risen "dramatically".

"Google has bet big on mobile," says Gundotra. "We hope and believe that there's a chance that cost per click of mobile ads could exceed desktop in the future.”

His comments echo those of CEO Eric Schmidt, who said last month that Google is now a "mobile first" company. The firm has stepped up its mobile efforts in recent months, acquiring mobile ad network AdMob and launching its first mobile hardware, the Nexus One smartphone. Gundotra says Google is optimising its full range of services, not just search, for mobile devices. He claims more than 50m people are now using Google Maps from their mobiles.

Google has claimed mobile devices will render desktop PCs irrelevant within the next three years by replacing them as the primary means of researching and consuming information online. But Gundotra says mobile search is not yet displacing desktop use.

"When we see desktop usage decline, like when people go out to lunch, that's when we see mobile spike," he says. "We think these are brand-new searches that we would never have seen previously."

However, Gartner analyst Ranjit Atwal warns against focusing too narrowly on the mobile platform. "The real point here is not about one platform being more important or more in favour than another," he tells StrategyEye. "It is about platform choice, one platform being complementary to another. Users want different platforms that are optimal for varying activities. Google should be wary of focusing on a market which has not yet been proven at the expense of desktops, particularly as PCs are so important for enterprise."