Brett Tabke reported today with a couple tidbits [edited: the thread was removed, but it is back and located here; edited again: thread is now here] from Pubcon that were being tossed around at the conference about Google’s new mobile friendly algorithm that launched today, although unfortunately they weren’t attributed to anyone in particular to get the context.  But they were definitely raising some eyebrows this morning.

The one big thing was he stated was “Googles mobile factors favor Chrome Browser over Safari.”

Since this was the first time I heard of this, I decided to ask Gary Illyes from Google whether there was any accuracy in this report.  And the answer was a pretty emphatic no.

I also asked about whether Google cares whether a site is designed for Chrome or Safari, as Brett reported “Some webmasters believe this is about Google promoting Android flavored web design over ios/safari design.”

Both of those seemed like a long shot, since the mobile algo really only cares about whether a site passes the mobile friendly test, and designing for either iOS Safari or mobile Chrome is essentially the same.

Bottom line, Google doesn’t care what you search in or how you design it, as long as it is mobile friendly according to their test.

Update 4/23: The original post seems to have been removed, but here is a copy of the original post I cited.

Update again: The thread is back here.