Google's earnings will remain a "crapshoot" until it gains more market share in mobile search, Jordan Rohan, an analyst for Stifel Nicolaus, told CNBC on Tuesday.
The analyst told
CNBC's Squawk on the Street. that the search giant was riddled with questions about its reach in mobile — a critical area of growth watched closely by analysts as smartphones become more dominant in the technology space.
"If you peel everything back and ask what's the one thing people care about, it's the core Google advertising business," Rohan said. "And what you really want to figure out is, how much is search growing?" he asked.
Investors want to know if Google is "gaining share are they not gaining share," the analyst said. "And that transition from desktop search—where Google keeps all the revenue—to mobile, where they share a lot with Apple and other partners, that's been a...a bumpy transition."