Mobile search is a mature everyday behavior, but its role varies by access, audience, location, and task. In 2023, 90% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone, while 15% were smartphone-dependent because they lacked high-speed home broadband. In the U.K., most online time in 2025 occurred on smartphones, and about 30% of searches showed AI overviews. The figures below separate older behavioral studies from recent market measurements.
Contents
- Mobile access and adoption
- Search-engine choices by market
- Why and where people search
- Shopping and local actions
- Information needs and audience differences
- AI summaries in search results
Mobile access and adoption
Pew Research Center’s survey conducted from May 19 to September 5, 2023, found that 95% of U.S. adults used the internet, 90% owned a smartphone, and 80% subscribed to high-speed home internet. The same study found that 15% were smartphone-dependent: they owned a smartphone but did not have a high-speed home broadband subscription. (Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology, Home Broadband, May 19–September 5, 2023.)
Dependence was not evenly distributed. Smartphone dependence reached 24% among U.S. adults with a high-school education or less, compared with 6% among adults with a college degree. Ownership also varied by household income: 98% of adults in households earning at least $100,000 owned a smartphone, versus 79% of adults in households earning under $30,000. These are access differences, not measures of how often each group searched. (Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology, Home Broadband, May 19–September 5, 2023.)
Earlier Pew measurements show how mobile access had already shifted by 2019. From January 8 to February 7, 2019, 37% of U.S. adults said they mostly used a smartphone when accessing the internet, up from 19% in 2013. In the same comparison, smartphone-only internet use rose from 8% in 2013 to 17% in 2019. (Mobile Technology and Home Broadband 2019, January 8–February 7, 2019; comparison with 2013.)
The longer historical record points in the same direction. In 2011, 87% of U.S. smartphone owners used their phones to access the internet or email, and 78% of those users did so on a typical day. Also in 2011, 28% of smartphone internet users said the phone was the device they used for most online activity. (Smartphones as an internet appliance, 2011.) These legacy figures describe their own measurement periods and should not be treated as current estimates.
In the U.K., Ofcom reported that adults spent an average of 4.5 hours online per day in 2025, with most online time occurring on smartphones. (From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025, 2025.)
Search-engine choices by market
StatCounter’s mobile search-engine measurements show a highly concentrated market. In May 2026, Google accounted for 95.52% of worldwide mobile search-engine share. Yandex had 0.94%, Bing 0.70%, DuckDuckGo 0.69%, Baidu 0.64%, and Yahoo 0.51%. (Mobile Search Engine Market Share Worldwide, May 2026.)
The leading engine was even more dominant in several August 2026 market snapshots:
| Market | Other listed engines with share above 0.5% | |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 93.51% | DuckDuckGo 2.08%; Yahoo 1.86%; Bing 1.81% |
| United Kingdom | 97.60% | Yahoo 0.68%; DuckDuckGo 0.60% |
| India | 99.06% | DuckDuckGo 0.56% |
| Asia | 95.49% | Baidu 1.53%; Yandex 0.83%; Naver 0.56% |
| Europe | 95.77% | Yandex 1.63%; DuckDuckGo 0.69% |
| North America | 94.00% | DuckDuckGo 1.96%; Bing 1.67%; Yahoo 1.65% |
Source: StatCounter’s country and regional mobile search-engine reports, August 2026. The listed values are market-share measurements, not percentages of people. (United States, United Kingdom, India, Asia, Europe, North America.)
Ofcom’s separate 2025 measure found that 82% of U.K. adults used Google Search, making it the country’s most-used search service. That person-level figure is not directly interchangeable with StatCounter’s device- or usage-based market-share figures. (From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025, 2025.)
Why and where people search
Google’s Singapore mobile-search study, conducted in 2014, classified 53% of mobile searches as decision-oriented: searches tied to buying a product or service, checking details, price, or location. Another 41% were general-information searches and 15% were passive searches. Because these categories come from a 2014 study, they describe that study’s market and period rather than current global behavior. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
The same research recorded mobile-search locations. Overall, 76% of searches happened at home or work, 17% happened on the go, and 4% happened in a store or restaurant. For decision-oriented searches specifically, the reported location shares were 50% at home, 57% at work or school, 58% on the go, and 62% in a shop. These figures reflect the study’s category reporting and should not be added together as one exclusive distribution. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
Mobile search also connected with advertising and sharing. In the Singapore study, 38% of mobile searches resulted in the user noticing an ad. Consumers shared information with someone else after 38% of searches: 22% through face-to-face sharing, 10% by email, 5% through other social media, 5% through SMS or messaging apps, and 3% by phone call. These channel percentages are reported outcomes and are not a basis for estimating total shares. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
Google’s 2016 mobile-needs study found that 96% of people used a smartphone to get something done when a need arose, while search was the first resource for 87%. (How Mobile Has Changed the Way We Meet Our Needs, May 2016.) A Google/Nielsen study from November 2013 measured 7.3 hours per week spent on mobile apps and 8 hours per week on the mobile web, or more than 15 hours across both. (Majority of mobile consumers use search in the shopping process, November 2013.)
Shopping and local actions
In the 2014 Singapore study, 84% of mobile searches led to a further action, such as seeking more information, visiting a site or store, or buying something. After a search, 52% sought more information, 48% visited a website, and 42% visited a store or website. The reported purchase rate was 16%, including 5% buying in a store, 3% on a computer, 3% on a smartphone, and 2% on a tablet. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
Decision-oriented searches were associated with stronger offline and cross-device outcomes in that study. They were 112% more likely to lead to a physical-store visit, 70% more likely to lead to an in-store purchase, and 38% more likely to lead to a PC purchase than other searches. They were also 2.75 times as likely to lead to a restaurant or bar visit. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
Timing was concentrated: 42% of purchase-related conversions happened within one hour of a mobile search, and 81% happened within five hours. These are study-specific conversion timing estimates, not a universal rule for every mobile query. (Mobile Search Moments: Summary of Findings, 2014.)
Google’s local-search study reported 1.5 billion destinations related to what people searched for on Google every month in March 2016. It also reported that 30% of all mobile searches were related to location in April 2016. In the U.S., mobile searches for “stores open now” or “food open now” increased 2.1 times from March 2015 to March 2016, while searches containing “where to buy,” “where to find,” or “where to get” increased 1.3 times from February 2015 to February 2016. (How Mobile Search Connects Consumers to Stores, March–May 2016.)
Among people searching on smartphones for something nearby, 76% visited a business within a day and 28% made a purchase, according to the same Google study in May 2016. Separately, a November 2013 category study found that 74% of mobile consumers used a search engine during the shopping process; the category rates were 41% for health and nutrition, 38% for automotive, and 42% for home and garden. (How Mobile Search Connects Consumers to Stores, May 2016; Majority of mobile consumers use search in the shopping process, November 2013.)
Information needs and audience differences
Pew’s 2015 survey of U.S. smartphone owners measured a broad set of information needs. In the prior year, 62% had used a phone to look up health-condition information, 57% for online banking, 44% for real-estate or housing information, and 43% for job information. Another 40% used a phone for government information or services, 30% for educational content, and 18% to submit a job application. (Usage and Attitudes Toward Smartphones, 2015.)
The results varied by economic position and smartphone dependence. Among lower-income U.S. smartphone owners, 32% had submitted a job application by phone, compared with 7% of higher-income smartphone owners. Among smartphone-dependent users, 63% had gotten job information on their phone and 39% had submitted a job application by phone. (Usage and Attitudes Toward Smartphones, 2015.)
Younger adults reported especially high use for several needs. Among U.S. smartphone owners ages 18–29, three-quarters had used a phone for health information, about seven in ten for online banking, and about seven in ten for job information. For navigation, 67% of all U.S. smartphone owners used a phone at least occasionally for turn-by-turn driving directions and 31% did so frequently. Public-transit information was lower at 25% occasionally and 10% frequently. Among ages 18–29, 80% used a phone at least occasionally for driving directions, compared with 38% for public-transit information. (Usage and Attitudes Toward Smartphones, 2015.)
News was another established mobile use: 68% of U.S. smartphone owners used their phone at least occasionally to follow breaking news in 2015, and 33% did so frequently. (Usage and Attitudes Toward Smartphones, 2015.)
AI summaries in search results
Recent measurements show that mobile search behavior now takes place alongside AI-generated summaries, although the available figures below are not all measured the same way. Ofcom reported that about 30% of U.K. searches showed AI overviews in 2025, while 53% of U.K. adults said they often saw AI summaries in search results. The same Ofcom report counted 3 billion Google searches per month in the U.K. in 2025. (From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025, 2025.)
Pew Research Center’s browsing-data analysis for March 1–31, 2025, found that 58% of U.S. respondents had at least one search that produced an AI-generated summary alongside traditional results. In that analysis, 10% conducted an AI-related query on a search engine during March 2025. (What Web Browsing Data Tells Us About How AI Appears Online, March 1–31, 2025.) These findings indicate growing exposure to AI-assisted result pages, but they do not establish how often mobile users clicked, converted, or replaced traditional search with AI tools.