computer science

Mobilegeddon

Mobilegeddon is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mobilegeddon rather than just read about it. In short: Mobilegeddon is a name for Google's search engine algorithm update of April 21, 2015. The term was coined by Chuck Price in a post written for Search Engine Watch on March 9, 2015.

Key takeaways

Mobilegeddon belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mobilegeddon to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mobilegeddon from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mobilegeddon is a name for Google's search engine algorithm update of April 21, 2015. The term was coined by Chuck Price in a post written for Search Engine Watch on March 9, 2015. The term was then adopted by webmasters and web-developers. The main effect of this update was to give priority to websites that display well on smartphones and other mobile devices. The change did not affect searches made from a desktop computer or a laptop. Google announced its intention to make the change in February 2015. In addition to their announcement, Google published an article, "Mobile Friendly Sites," on their Google Developers page to help webmasters with the transition. Google claims the transition to mobile-friendly sites was to improve user experience, stating "the desktop version of a site might be difficult to view and use on a mobile device." The protologism is a blend word of "mobile" and "Armageddon" because the change "could cause massive disruption to page rankings." But, writing for Forbes, Robert Hof says that concerns about the change were "overblown" in part because "Google is providing a test to see if sites look good on smartphones". Search engine results pages on smartphones now show URLs in "breadcrumb" format, as opposed to the previous explicit format.

Impact Based on their data set, software company Searchmetrics found that the average loss of rankings for the non-mobile friendly sites measured was 0.21 positions on average. Content marketing company BrightEdge has tracked over 20,000 URLs since the update, and is reporting a 21% decrease in non-mobile-friendly URLs on the first 3 pages of search results. According to Peter J. Meyers, it was "nothing to write home about."

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mobilegeddon

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mobilegeddon claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mobilegeddon before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mobilegeddon ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mobilegeddon

In research: Mobilegeddon appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mobilegeddon in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mobilegeddon is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Google Search, Search algorithms, Search engine optimization, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mobilegeddon outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mobilegeddon in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mobilegeddon means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mobilegeddon out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mobilegeddon in simple terms?

Mobilegeddon is a name for Google's search engine algorithm update of April 21, 2015. The term was coined by Chuck Price in a post written for Search Engine Watch on March 9, 2015.

Why does Mobilegeddon matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mobilegeddon?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mobilegeddon.