One of today’s hottest topics for Internet marketing is “the future of search engine technology.” I received an earful of speculation from SMX West in Santa Clara, and you can find some mention of the subject in almost every SEO blog, forum, or website. Obviously the future of search engine technology will greatly impact the marketing and optimization infrastructure that has developed in recent years, so there is certainly cause for consideration, but the basic concepts of web marketing and search engine optimization will never change. Yes, there are always old tricks or new tricks that can manipulate the system for a short while, but a real SEO campaign should stand independent of shifts in algorithms or technology.

With that in mind, there are some exciting new ideas entering the conversation about the future search experience, and in order to understand why these concepts are developing, it is important to know how people search. The three basic types of searches are find, discover, and explore searches. "Find" searches are considered short sessions that have very specific questions, such as local listings, stocks, directions, etc, while a "discover" searches have the same clear need with a less specific answer in mind. These searches might look like shopping for a new car. Yes, the searcher knows they are looking for a car, but they spend any number of hours researching and searching for the right one. Finally, an "explore" search has no real answer or target in mind but seeks only to browse various subjects. The future of search will be entirely defined by these basic search types.

Search engines are still quite weak in terms of "find" searches. When searching for something very specific, there may be thousands of results and no real way to specify further. For this reason, the idea of personal search has surfaced, where the engine would learn through various means what types of results certain users are typically seeking. So when a construction contractor searches for “windows” he will come up with glass windows instead of the operating system.

Rankings determined by user interaction are another possibility for the future. In this case, the amount of times users choose particular sites from search rankings would be recorded and totaled to prove which sites are most valuable to the rankings. There has even been talk of artificial intelligence for search engine use. With artificial intelligence, search crawlers would actually read and interpret text, comprehend video content, and even analyze photographs. With this futuristic technology, the search index could be extremely accurate, providing the best, genuine content, and it might not be that far away.

Search engine technology is an extremely exciting field, providing information from millions of sources to people around the world. The information is out there, and the engines are in place, now it is only a question of improving those engines to make access to information as simple and seamless as possible.


About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in Internet marketing and search engine optimization is largely focused on the social media and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about search engine optimization, visit www.arteworks.biz.

The development of blended search is an exciting new chapter in the history of search engine technology. Not only have search engines developed wonderfully intelligent means for sorting out spammers from authentic content, they are beginning to include images, videos, book results, recordings, and more in a multi-media search result environment. According to Google Senior Staff Engineer, David Bailey, the process for creating a blended search is similar to the previous web results model. The only real difference being that each form of content is classified into a particular “silo” of information that the search engine investigates. Results are first collected from all “silos,” or content categories, and then the engine creates a ranking decision based on the collective results. Of course, this ranking system is more complicated since comparing a video to a website, or a picture to a song, is quite difficult, not to mention collecting all of this data. David Bailey acknowledges this complication in terms of cost and accuracy, but continues to have a hopeful perspective toward the future of blended search and its ability to truly meet the needs of searchers.

So what does this mean for those interested in increasing their search engine visibility and rankings? I agree with Bailey, recommending that those pursuing search engine optimization should begin tampering with various forms of content. Marketers and optimizers should start publishing high quality and well captioned images, creating video and video sitemaps, updating business listings for local searches, submitting feeds to product searches, and creating high quality multi-media blogs. One must only consider the developments of the web’s most popular social media networks to realize how important these things are becoming. For example, StumbleUpon and Digg, two of the most popular bookmarking communities, have both introduced new submission and search possibilities that specifically focus on video and images.

Because blended search is so new, most of the space is open for the taking. Any relevant videos or images of minimal quality are likely to find their way into search results, especially when hosted on major posting sites such as Youtube, MetaCafe, and Flickr. So for the cost, videos and images can be excellent exposure tools. The studies are still young in regards to tracking actual conversions from videos and images, but an increase in website traffic never hurts. Now is the time to take advantage and explore blended search. Like the development of traditional search rankings, those who get start early are more likely to solidify a highly ranked presence.

About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. His interest and experience in Internet marketing and search engine optimization is largely focused on the social media and multi-media facets of exposure. To learn more about search engine optimization, visit www.arteworks.biz.

This past week, ArteWorks attended the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) in Santa Clara California, and I must say the experience is well worth it to anyone interested in any type of search engine marketing. Representatives from all of the major search engines as well as the most knowledgeable people in our field were in attendance. The seminars were focused, the keynotes were inspirational, but most of all, the networking was tremendous. This was my first conference to attend as a representative for ArteWorks, and getting to know so many brilliant and fun people in the industry was certainly a highlight.

The conference started Monday evening with a networking bash (with drinks provided), which was a great way to break the ice with people I have only known in the blogosphere. The next morning the keynote started early, lead by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, focusing mainly on blended, personalized, and social Search. After a break, the seminars began. The next three days would be a solid chunk of focused info sessions ranging from social media, to video, to reputation management, to Q & A with search engine engineers, and beyond. Each seminar would be lead by a panel of experts in a particular field and was open to email questions at the end. I concentrated on the social media and blended search oriented seminars as this is what I am most interested in, and I found the presentations to be quite useful. Though I am already familiar with most of the concepts and strategies addressed, I felt like I was going down the laundry list of factors that make up a successful Internet marketing campaign and reevaluating my approach. For someone new to the industry, these types of seminars would be absolutely invaluable.

Now on to the parties! Each night there was an organized “networking” function that encouraged chatting with new people in the industry while letting loose a little bit. I felt that the atmosphere was extremely open and friendly, and a fantastic avenue for getting to know some of the most knowledgeable people in Search as well as those just getting started. Not only did I make some of the most valuable business connections ever, I genuinely had a great time doing it. We are not alone, all you Search Marketers out there!

If you have ever considered attending one of these events, I hope you will take my recommendation and make it happen. SMX offers so many great advantages in this industry, and it would be a shame to miss out.


About the Author: Peter Hamilton is the Project Manager in charge of the Seattle office of ArteWorks SEO. He has a Bachelor's degree in radio, television and film and extensive experience in social media marketing. Mr. Hamilton also heads up the ArteWorks SEO educational video series on topics related to Internet marketing and search engine optimization.