Google's App Indexing speeds up switching to apps from Chrome and Google Search
When I first saw this update in the Google Developers Blog, I yawned. When I read deeper, though, and saw what it can do, I got a bit more excited. Google’s App Indexing technology is being rolled out to iOS, meaning you can do things like click on a restaurant’s link in Google for iOS and go straight to that eatery’s information page in the OpenTable app.
The majority of Google’s revenue comes from search, so the company has to continue innovating to find ways to make their main business work on mobile devices, where an increasing number of eyeballs are focused. App Indexing support has been available to Android developers for quite some time, allowing users on the mobile operating system to open software content straight from Chrome or Google for iOS.
Bringing App Indexing to iOS is almost a no-brainer, and I’m surprised that Google has waited this long to do it. According to a Goldman Sachs analysis quoted by The New York Times, 75 percent of Google’s mobile search revenue comes from iOS. App Indexing is only rolling out with a small group of test users for now, but Google is planning to make it available to more developers as soon as possible.
Until the support is rolled out to everyone, developers can still implement App Indexing beginning today, so they’re ready when Google begins allowing more apps to have deep links show up in search results. Google provides instructions on how to do so at the bottom of the blog post announcing the upcoming support.
