The Future of Search – Hosted at Google’s Cambridge Office, Presented by Google Senior Agency Relations Manager Lisa Green and SEMPO Boston Working Group
Search is being redefined by mobile, local, social, personal, augmented reality
By a device revolution: Mobile phones
- Increasing capabilities and ubiquity
- Have almost human capabilities: ears, eyes, know who, what, where, why
Personalization How can we truly personalize?
Augmented reality Fuse digital to actual world
Localization & personalized search
- iPhone users using maps 30 percent more than desktop users. No need to ID location.
- You know where I am, I want sushi
Social circle personalization
- New: Augment results with friends’ info, say on NZ what did they say/recommend
- What do my friends think about type of mobile phone I’m investigating
Omnivorous search box: everything you’ve searched
- Media
- Photos, video, not just text. 100 billion images added to web every year
- Image recognition
- Look by color, size: Google can understand what’s in the picture
- Will be able to drag image into the search box
- Google Goggles: take picture, search conducted from pic. Can take biz cards, add to contact lists
- Image swirl: Similar to Wonder Wheel, system understands how images relate to each other
Adding greater depth to search
- Play songs from search results
- Add more languages, make Google universally accessible, can search and get results in native language
What’s new in Search blog posts updated every Friday, Google YouTube brand channel
Q&A
Q. How long until we have conversation w search engines? Have phone talk back to you?
A. Devices need improvement, technology is there on Google’s end
Q. Local listings: Google maps?
A. Local extensions released recently, improvements and beta tests within local Mobile, can target by device and carrier: AT&T and iPhone users within geo space
Q. Does Google know searches across devices, if you searched from phone, will results on desktop reflect phone search?
A. Only if logged in, but try to keep separate so results not skewed
Q. Location-based banner advertising?
A. iPhone doesn’t allow but android does, up to the carriers, Google working toward those results while protecting privacy
Q. SEM mobile?
A. Device and carrier targeting is latest, for sponsored ads. Can select whether just want full browser phones. More coming in mobile
Other nuggets
- Real-time results: are unfiltered, working to refine real-time
- Hit all points in the algorithm, and businesses can appear in real-time results
- Nexus One forthcoming for Verizon, Google was leaving development to device manufacturers, but now considering it
- The way the search engine works fundamentally won’t change, but focusing on indexing
- Seeing an increase in number of words users putting in the search: Majority of engineers working on search.
- Google tries to be sure agencies are armed w info to sell search marketing (not SEO) so they understand how to grow business
Bottom line
Google’s focus is always on users and giving them what they want
Previous “Voice of Google” posts
SEMNE event: Google Adwords Best Practices with Malinda Gagnon of Google