Google closes in on ‘intuitive cross device experience’

Google CEO Larry Page said that the firm is “closing in on our goal of a beautiful, simple, and intuitive experience regardless of your device,” citing recent developments like Google Glass and its Chromecast TV dongle.

Speaking on the firm’s third quarter earnings call, Page said “as screens multiply, people navigating across them seamlessly becomes more and more important.”

He added that Chromecast – which lets users find content on their phone and then click to play it on their main TV screen – was an example of “genuine multi-tasking in a multi screen world.”

Discussing the firm’s performance, Page also revealed that almost 40% of Youtube’s traffic now comes from mobile, up from just 6% two years ago.

Also speaking on the call, Nikesh Arora, Google’s SVP and chief business officer Nikesh Arora, said that spend by consumer packaged good (CPG) ad clients on YouTube had grown by over 75% in the past two years.

Asked whether Google was interested in buying the rights to live sports like the NFL to broadcast on YouTube, Arora said: “Our content strategy in YouTube is working. We’re constantly talking to people about content all the time and so sure, we will talk to anybody who wants to talk about content. But for now we’re happy with where we are.”

Overall in the quarter, Google reported consolidated revenues of US$14.89 billion (€10.9 billion), a year-on-year increase of 12%. Profit, including net income from discontinued operations, was US$2.97 billion, compared to $2.18 billion in the third quarter of 2012.