Apps are devouring the open web

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Yummy.

Apps are eating the web.

Over the past decade, there has been a inexorable movement from the open internet to the walled gardens of apps — and this trend just hit a major milestone.

According to new data from ComScore, more than half of all time Americans spend online is spent in apps — up from around 41% two years ago.

It’s a stat that will be discomfiting to advocates of the open web, as well as companies whose core business is built around it — notably Google.

As content that was once freely available and indexable on websites becomes silo-ed away in closed-off apps, it makes it harder to search and link to content. This is, of course, the cornerstone of Google’s original business.

Below is the data from ComScore, showing how mobile dominates when it comes to platforms people use to get online — and on mobile, apps are the most popular way of accessing information.

ComScore

And here’s how the amount of time spent in apps has rocketed over the last few years.

ComScore

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