The Power of Search

I recently talked to someone who enjoyed the lecture “Search and Society” from Berkly’s online lecture series by Marti Hearst. It is comforting to know that even the big companies are as terrified of search as DIY webmasters are.

Search is an incredibly valuable tool. It isn’t surprising that a ‘real world’ advertising agency became the biggest online advertising company, Google. The power of search lies in the fact that it is ‘possible’ to track data. This is the basis of Web 3.0’s data mining-toolbars and PC based widgets.

The next generation of search and page rank will give the user the power they tried to usurp under Web 2.0.  In Web 3.0, everything done will be recorded, in theory.

Search Engine Search

One of the first cases of tracking people on the web was born in the Google Empire, 2002, with the introduction of paid search, also called Sponsored search. Google matched paid advertisements with the user’s search. Until then, the search engines were paid when a banner was displayed. Google changed the rules and only charged advertisers when users clicked the link.

This was the first expression of the ‘database of intention.’ This is only the first instance of the evolution of the ‘telling what we want’ as opposed to being told what to view.

The concept of society will have a major impact on how Web 3.0 will work. There was no privacy in the old world. We were farmers who stayed in one place for generations. We’ve built a public world on cyberspace.

The web has changed the economy of information. Information that was once ‘private’ will become worldwide news once the page is indexed. This will become part of the search databases, and in turn, part of the PPC schematics.

This type of search influence in the real world is already seen in the real world. Apply for a job and the PR representative will Google your name. This brings up a whole new aspect. “Who you are in the Index is who you are in the real world.”

This can be quite devastating, as today’s’ search is not sophisticated enough to manage the task.  One professional Googled her name to find out that someone else with the same name, and year of birth, had been charged with animal cruelty, violence, and landed in jail. This individual would not be called back for a second job interview, despite the fact that that Google mixed up the records of four different people in the search.

Consumer Search

Do you think that everyone uses search engines to find a website, product, or service? Think again. A growing number of people are using Social Networks and communities to build their searches.  A growing number of people are using the search bar at Stumbleupon.com, myspace.com, and facebook.com. They are looking for their friend’s recommendations, not the search engine’s recommendations.

This raises the question of whether webmasters should be focusing on link building campaigns, or writing reviews that can get posted to Stumbleupon.com. This is compounded when webmasters look at Facebook advertising as an alternative to Google’s Adwords.  Will the conversion rate vary? It is too soon to say.

Another question put on the floor by SEM professionals is whether businesses should hire 5 – 10 people to manage lenses, forum posting, and blogs, instead of placing banner ads.     It may take a couple years to figure out the best advertising methods for the next generation of search. The only thing that is certain, is search will continue to be the foundation of advertising for the next few years.