Google’s biggest threat may not be Microsoft or Yahoo.

No, one of the most formidable challenges facing Google is likely sitting in your pocket or purse. It’s your cell phone, and it will put added pressure on Google and other World Wide Web companies to revamp the way they handle online marketing.

As more folks use cell phones and their tiny glass screens to gain access to the World Wide Web, Google and its fellow online advertisers will have less space, or what’s called ad stock, to place marketing messages for customers. Google makes money selling ad stock. And its ad stock is diminished on a cell phone.

iPhone as Tipping Point

Google can now fit about 10 ads on a standard computer screen. [If you look at Google search results on a PC monitor, paid ads are the listings at the very top and along the right.] But on your cell phone, whether you type in a search query

at google.com you get only one or two paid ads in response.

Imagine the horror that would befall your business whether a large slice of what you sell suddenly disappeared. A similar fate could befall companies that depend on online advertising, as small screens become the gateway to the World Wide Web.

Of course, no one’s suggesting that consumers will abandon standard computer screens overnight. And early research shows that mobile advertising may be more effective than standard online advertising, suggesting that it will be more lucrative for the companies that rely on it. Still, the shift is coming fast adequate that Google must get prepared.

It was Apple, a frequent Google collaborator, that tipped the trend. Consumer use of mobile Net in the U.S. has longed trailed Asia and Europe, where standardized cell networks made it easier for handset makers to produce gadgets that tap the Web at blazingly fast speeds. But…

Orginal post by Top Tech News