Search is a constantly evolving and changing entity, and this year has certainly seen more than its fair share of change. Possibly highest on the list has been the move to blended or universal results. Much of the focus and discussion has revolved around Google Universal, but they aren't the only game in town and all the majors have now entered into blended results to some extent or another.
This presents interesting opportunities and challenges. Those who focus on developing a fuller and broader Web presence, adding video, news, blogs, images, local content and social media to the mix, greatly increase their opportunities to gain rank positions across all the engines. The challenge however will be that the results across the engines may become even more varied, as each engine puts its own spin on the blending.
It's still very early in the game as the engines continue to ramp up and tweak their algos as they evolve and introduce searchers to blended results. It will be interesting to watch the evolution of blended search across the different engines. Today, results vary within the engines. Some searches show little to no signs of blended results, and others, show considerably more.
For an interesting example, let's take a look at a single search across the engines and see how they compare. Since we are talking about how blended search is evolving, what better search term than "cavemen" to use as a test. It is an interesting term for our test because it has such a wide frame of reference and actually poses a rather interesting challenge for the engines. Depending on the searcher, it may carry very different connotations:
- Prehistoric humans
- The definition of the word itself
- The ad campaign for the Geico commercials
- The newly launched sitcom on ABC based on the Geico commercials
Here are screenshots of that search in Google, Yahoo, MSN (Live Search) and Ask. It is interesting to see the variety of the impact of blended results across the engines, from very little to considerable impact. As you experiment with different searches though, you may see the engines' position on this scale shift up or down.
Along with calling out some of the specific blended results, I've also noted some of the refinement options, such as related searches, narrowed or expanded searches, and Yahoo's new "Search Assist."
Ask.com SERPs.
Google SERPs.
Yahoo SERPs with Search Assist.
MSN Live SERPs.
While the survival of the new Cavemen series may be in question, the continued evolution and survival of blended search is without doubt.
I often talk about blended results and refer to Google universal results. It has become an important tenet of SEO, yet its exact impact continues to be defined. A great example of Google universal and blended search results can be found in reference to one of my recent posts here. Last week I addressed progressive enhancement with regard SEO, and as a result of Google's addition of news and blog items in their results, that posting landed on page one of for the ultra-competitive search phrase "seo."
More than likely, Google applies a greater focus on freshness for news results versus the regular results. That helped my post break into page one in the first place, but it also was its downfall: my post is no longer on page one. Easy come, easy go! ;-)
What does this all mean? Search marketers and people involved in SEO must pay attention to the importance of the new opportunities blended search offers. Entities like video, images, and blogs take on a new importance, and the consequences of their optimization have become magnified. Search engine optimization, now more than ever, extends well beyond traditional web pages. Take a step back and ask yourself: are my optimization efforts wide and deep enough?
Search results, they are a-changing.
You may have noticed some changes in your Google search results over the last few months. These subtle changes are just a sign of what is coming, as Google continues to roll out its universal search results. While much has been said and speculated about universal search, its subtle reveal still leaves many site owners perplexed as to what it means to them.
In case you are just tuning in, universal search is a blending of the various "vertical" search properties, such as video, news, blogs and images, as well as the traditional search results that most people associate with search. If you weren't aware of the various search properties or hadn't ever searched through any of the vertical search channels, then you already understand one of the driving factors behind universal search.
The influence of universal search is just beginning to be seen and so far appears to be very subtle. This may be by plan, as Google may be cautious in making any dramatic changes in the search results pages that many users have come to know and expect.
What this really means for site owners is that there are new opportunities to gain placement or additional placement in the search engine results pages. By adding a blog, releasing online press releases to authoritative wire services, uploading video to sites like YouTube, and adding a local.google.com listing, businesses increase the chances of having search result listings that may directly or indirectly drive traffic to their sites.
But it also means that site owners must think beyond the boundaries of their own Web sites. Many of these additional listing opportunities come from onetime activities or just a little additional effort to maximize the potential of activities that are already being done.
As we can see by looking at various search results for "iphone," "apple iphone," "iphone apple," and "apple," at this time, it is still hard to predict which vertical search properties' results will be pulled from within these new universal-search results.
Google search results for: apple.
Google search results for: iphone.
Google search results for: iphone apple.
Google search results for: apple iphone.
One thing is certain: now is a good time to pay extra attention to the type of results that Google returns, to keep an eye on how universal search continues to shape the search landscape. Watching universal search unfold will give site owners a view into where they need to focus their efforts beyond their own site, especially as these types of blended search results continue to make their way across all the engines.
Those trying to keep on top of the cutting edge of results should keep a watchful eye on Ask.com as well. Being the fourth horse in the search engine race, Ask is focusing heavily on innovation and differentiation, and may be less cautious with experimenting.
Search (or more precisely the search results) is undergoing some of the greatest changes we've ever seen with the influence of local search, mobile search, personalization, and universal search. Search marketers and site owners alike are bouncing between wild speculation and frantic contemplation of how search will change and what impact those changes will have.
Who better to turn to on the topic of search results than Gord Hotchkiss and his team at Enquiro. Now famous for their eye tracking studies revealing the infamous "Golden Triangle" and F-shaped patterns of user scanning of SERPs, Enquiro takes a bold step to try to track user interaction with Google universal and personalized results, and an even bolder leap of predicting the result pages we may see in 2010.
Enquiro just made available a must-read whitepaper, Search Engine Results: 2010, for anyone dealing with search in any way. Along with the traditional eye tracking studies done for this report, they assembled a dream-team of industry experts to discuss thoughts and ideas on the future of search results.
Merely a sampling of highlights, what follows are some of the great nuggets to explore from this report, starting off with a quote that truly encapsulates the report's essence:
There is, without a doubt, great passion about the future of search and we strongly believe that the next three years will represent the most exciting era yet in the short history of web search.
Intent
Usually when we talk about websites, search engines, and intent, we refer to the intent on the part of the SEO or web designer... white-hat versus black-hat, delivering relevant content versus gaming the engines. This however is a whole new intent... the intent of the user.
Much of the future for search will come down to the ability for search engines to identify searcher intent. A great illustration of this comes from Justin Osmer, product manager for Microsoft Live search,
"An area that we're focusing on over here at Live search is thinking more about the mode in which people are in when they're using search."
Are searchers looking to buy, to research, or just to be entertained? Each of these modes may dictate very different results for the same search.
Google personalization and universal are trying to tap into that intent as well, based on previous search history as well as by serving up a mix of content types, including maps, blog posts, videos, and the traditional textual results. Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of Search Engine Land and chief content officer for Third Door Media, added to the discussion on the importance of relevancy in how the information is presented, such as providing maps for appropriate location searches or the ability to list blog results based on recency as well as relevancy. It's not just about presenting the results, but presenting them in the format that matches the searcher's intent.
Interaction
One area that will see great exploration will be in how users interact with search engines. As RSS adoption continues to grow and the sheer amount of information in its many formats expands, users will continue to look to search engines to be more than just a search destination, but a source of information aggregation; the search engine as portal, pulling and updating news and other content based on the user's preferences.
A particularly interesting comment was made by Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Search User Experience and Interface Design, that furthers the sense that search engines will continue their evolution beyond search:
"I think that people will be annotating search results pages and web pages a lot. They're going to be rating them, they're going to be reviewing them. They're going to be marking them up..."
The separate mention of "web pages" may be another reason why the development of a Google Browser would be so important. Tapping into the web browser might lead to that ability to annotate and rate those pages and further help Google identify what content interests the user.
While Chris Sherman, executive editor of Search Engine Land, feels that advancement within search personalization is still fairly limited, he offered up an interesting interactive approach that the search engines might pursue,
"...submitting a page of content and analyzing the full text of that page and then tying that in conjunction with our past behavior..."
as a way to allow users to interact with search engines and help bring about better results.
New Search Patterns
Google personalized and universal results are still slowly trickling into everyday searches. Enquiro created sample pages representing a futurized version based on where these new results may be headed to see the potential impact on user interaction through eye tracking.
While this was very limited and exploratory research, it may hint at the important impact these changes may have. The eye tracking revealed how the introduction of images, as long as they are relevant, may begin to alter the search pattern into more of an "E" pattern than an "F" pattern, with the image forming the middle connection. Searchers may then expand their attention to the title and description accompanying that image, and then may move above or below the invisible line drawn by that image, depending on which cluster of results appears more relevant based on personalization.
To wrap up, search marketing is making a natural shift, somewhat downgrading those things that have been synonymous with SEO, like rankings, keywords, and optimization, to a much greater focus on the users, tying into their intent and interests at the time of search. Personalization will make site stickiness ever more important. Securing a position in users history, becoming an authoritative go-to source for information, will be more critical than ever. Winning in the SERPs will require much more than just position.
This new whitepaper from Enquiro is filled with much more detailed and interesting discussion than could ever be covered here, so be sure to download your own copy today. The time to prepare for all the exciting changes in search is now, after all, 2010 is only three years away.
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