The Future of Search Marketing - Searching in Space
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, May 09, 2007 2 Comments |
Web Analytics World Blogging Contest - entry by Tom Wolfer of ASK Enquiro
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The way in which an individual searches, the manner in which information privacy is protected, and the method by which search results are retrieved, stored, and communicated back to him or her should be dramatically different in the future. In the future, this is how things may look…
Internet searches will be conducted via mobile, wireless, handheld devices such as iPods, cellphones, and the portable Blackberry; these devices are equipped with satellite communications functionality, voice recognition technology, and either retinal or fingerprint scan capability.
Internet searchers are not required to ‘type in’ the keywords that they wish to conduct their searches with. Google, MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines accept ‘voice recognition’ for searching; a internet searcher can instead just speak his or her or keywords into their handheld device, followed by the phrase ‘find results’, and the search engine will execute their search.
There is now a built in privacy protection system that provides internet searchers with the choice of preventing their search behaviour from being captured and analyzed in tools such as SiteCatalyst and WebTrends. Before executing a search, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines are required to obtain the following two pieces of information from an internet searcher:
- either a retinal or fingerprint scan is used to verify the searcher’s specific identity.
- express permission (via voice response or retinal scan) to capture and store his or her website data during a search will be collected.
Internet searchers have the option of turning the express permission request to a default setting of ‘yes’ if they consent to having all of their internet search activity captured and analyzed.
Individual websites must still be ‘optimized’ to ensure that they appear near the top of the organic listings on the search results page; the ‘Golden Triangle’ area discovered by Enquiro Search Solutions continues to exist but in a more concentrated form.
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN continue to crawl and index websites and they constantly work to improve search algorithms. Content, however, resides in databases located on satellites, not servers, and organic search results are communicated back to searchers via satellite instead of through ‘wired’ internet channels provided by Telus, Bell, and others.
Internet browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari continue to be venues through which internet searchers ‘view’ search results on their handheld devices; but there are many more of them. Each browser is regulated and functions somewhat like today’s traditional TV stations; every internet browser is allotted satellite ‘airtime’ and may reach completely different audiences.
Google, Yahoo, MSN, and vertical search engines function as TV production companies such as Paramount Studios. Search engines must register with one or more internet browsers in order to have their search results displayed; decisions by a search engine about which browsers to register with are based on the content that they offer and the search markets that they are attempting to reach.
When selected by an internet searcher, an organic search result will open up a summary window of information about the website of interest that will provide the following options:
- a view a of real-time GPS map on which is plotted thee internet searcher’s own location and the location of the company that owns the website of interest; for companies with more than one location, the internet searcher will be have the option of selecting one from a menu-list.
- full contact information, including hours of operation normalized according to the time zone where the internet searcher is searching from is displayed to him or her; in addition, the internet searcher has the option of directly calling or e-mailing the company in question via voice prompting.
- the internet searcher can drill-down and view the content of the page that was specifically found by the keyword search.
- the ability to further drill-down into the website using a voice activated keyword search is also a choice made available to the internet searcher.
So, in the future, voice recognition is used by searchers to find what they want; retinal and eye scans allow for individual searchers to be identified and tracked, only if they want; satellite technology is employed to store crawled and indexed search engine data and communicate search results to internet searchers; and real-time search results are displayed to internet searchers on their choice of internet browsers while they are walking down the street.
Labels: Blogging
this future way of searching is quite interesting and in my research very realistic. I just had one question about the voice recognition. If we assume offices will still continue like they do now, with desks close to one another, do you think people are going to always want to speak into a mic to get search results? there is a fear of disrupting your neighbor and/or being embarrassed by what you are searching for.
Hey, you make a great point about the implications of 'voice recognition' searching on the workplace environment. I have the following two thoughts for you on this:
1) I certainly see your point about desks being close together. However, 'voice recognition searching' can simply be an option that can be turned 'on or off' on a device (PC, iPod, Blackberry etc.). Searching via entering a keyword can still remain an option.
2) The other thing to consider, however, is that the nature of the workplace itself is continuing to evolve as technology allows it to do so; handheld devices such as Blackberrys and ever smaller laptops are making it easier and easier for people to check e-mail and access/do work via company intranets etc. More workplaces are allowing workers to 'telecommute' (i.e. work from home) at least to some degree, and a sizable number of workers take their laptops with them to do work - if you can believe this - when they are on vacation! This means that the workplace itself is changing to the point where a greater percentage of an employee's time is spent doing work away from his or her desk; if things keep going the way they are, there may be no more need for desks side by side!
Thanks for writing in.
Cheers!