One of the highlights of this year's Search Engine Strategies conference in New York (aside from the fact that I got to go to New York and see the city) was the keynote speech by Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!
While the talk was interesting and he did raise a bunch of great points, one that stuck out for me was his notion of Yahoo! (and search in general) as a platform. This idea was mentioned in other sessions as well.
Essentially, search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN no longer become the destination but rather, the starting point for gathering all your important data into 1 relevant location. No longer will you go to Google.com, but you will search using Google.com. How is this possible? No longer will you have to switch between Google local, Google news, and Google image search, but you will just search, and the engine will be smart enough to know what you want.
There are already many ways to search online. MSN has search built into many of its products including the Office line, MSN Messenger, Windows Media Player and more. Yahoo! has search on all its web based properties, and Google is expanding beyond its core competency of search to offer more consumer products.
It is interesting to see how each of the search engines is talking the "search as a platform" premise. For example, Google, being the leader in search, is building all its products around search. We already can see this in their desktop search, searching through Gmail, web search, news search and more. I think this theme will continue throughout the year as Google continues to release more customer centric products.
Yahoo! is building products for the user, but using search (and more than likely although not mentioned, search advertising) as the backbone. We see this throughout the Yahoo! properties as well - a blend of non-paid and paid results.
Similarly MSN will move search more into the forefront of its upcoming products - making the search on products like Word and Excel perform better and faster.
But what else can this "search as a platform" mean to us - the search consumer?
Well, it should mean more search centric products, in other words, products that integrate searching into them. We will also have more choice in the type of product. There are many (unexplored) ways to get search (and of course advertising) onto the screens of users, whether they are using a search engine or not and searching from their desktop or not.
Take instant messaging, for example. One of the most used applications in the under 20 crowd, yet its advertising potential remains virtually untapped. MSN has a search box on MSN Messenger now, but that is a fairly recent addition, and they have virtually no way to monetize the product other than the odd ad they serve on it.
And then there is other online activities - Google is displaying advertising on Gmail (which they appear to have opened up to more users - I've received 5 or 6 Gmail invites from Google in the past few weeks). And while Yahoo! doesn't display Ads as prominently as Google, they do have sponsored links, as does Hotmail.
But what other potential avenues is there for search? Well, there's the whole area of wireless, or SMS search which is still pretty well untapped. Most engines have some SMS presence but they haven't all quite figured out how to make SMS work for them. You can't properly display a website in a 1 by 2 inch screen for example, but you can serve search results.
And there are other emerging technologies to which search is a natural fit - TV on demand for example.
Imagine being able to search TV listings for your favorite show for the next year, and having your PVR automatically schedule recording of the shows. Or, using a "similar" search feature to find shows similar to what you normally like. Can't get enough of "Survivor"? A search might return results saying that "The Apprentice" is a show you might enjoy. Did you see a show that had a catchy line in it but couldn't remember what the show was called? You could launch a search for that line and find the corresponding show, and have the option to either find out when it's on next and record it, or purchase it for later viewing.
What about from your vehicle? GPS enabled navigation systems are also fairly new. Imagine being able to search out road conditions where you are, and being able to navigate around traffic problems, or find your favorite coffee shop in the area.
As you may see, search is going to become more integrated into our daily lives. It won't be too long before we can launch a search from virtually any device (not just the desktop), and receive instant, relevant results.
Rob Sullivan
Head Organic Search Strategist
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