95% of search’s potential remains untapped, says Google’s VP and chief business officer Nikesh Arora

“We believe search is only five per cent of where it should be," he said, adding "our expectations of search continue to change".

The opportunities around the combination of voice search and mobile form part of Google’s reimagining of search.

“The concept of having a conversation with your phone and then having that link to everything else – that’s what Google is doing.”

The numerous ways in which data can be gathered to tie together connected experiences will create a huge pool of resources that are yet to be unlocked, according to Arora.

“If the last decade was one of technology made for us, the next decade is going to be about technology to connect everything else. Mobile is going to be a big thing, and things are going to talk to each other,” he said.

He theorised about the idea of being able to harness the power of the 1,500 smartphones in the audience to do something on a massive scale, such as power a spaceship.

Drawing on his engineering background, he told the festival’s audience that without the last decade of technological developments, the future waves of innovation would be impossible. “The last wave of technology allows for the next wave of revolution – it’s too hard to observe a revolution when you’re still in the middle of it,” he said.

He cited Google’s latest projects including Google Glass, the Project Loon network of Wi-Fi balloons, driverless cars and its most recent innovation – the Iris contact lens currently being clinically trialled.

“The antenna of the contact lens is able to send the data of what you’re seeing to your phone. If you could find all this kind of data from human beings there could be huge opportunities – if we understand all the data,” he said.

Arora opened his presentation by joking about how attached people have become to their phones. “Now when you borrow someone’s phone their eyes don’t leave your face. I did this last night – they are ok with it as long I’m using it in the room. Why is that?

“The phones have taken over our lives. We spend five per cent of our time on the phone and 95 per cent of the time doing other stuff on it – we have reached the moment when we use connectivity wherever we go,” he said.

He also spoke of the opportunity to bring connectivity to under-developed media markets such as Africa, where he said two out of three people have a mobile phone.