Oct 10
18
What is Search in 2010?
What, exactly, is search? The question is deceptively simple but finding a precise answer is surprisingly difficult. After a dozen years in the industry, you would think I would know a number of ways to answer the question but, after a dozen years in the industry I know enough to know my answer could change in an instant.
Search has come a long way from the earliest days of Alta Vista, Yahoo and Infoseek. Formerly a domain characterized by 10 – 20 blue links generated by a two – three keyword query, search has grown to encompass virtually every aspect of a user’s experience on the Web. Search happens even when an Internet user is unaware it is happening. Information references are generated, delivered and followed as a matter of course and not necessarily as a matter of user-choice.
Search has segmented into several styles. The major search engines, Google and Bing continue to define search as we knew it though each are adding new signals on a daily basis to their ranking algorithms. Recently, Bing added social recommendations or “likes” by friends on Facebook to its ranking algorithm, one of the strongest signals that Bing is personalizing search results the new engine has ever sent.
It can be argued that social recommendations fostered by Facebook and, to a lesser degree, Twitter are forms of search as information passed drives a user from one place to another on the web. That such information is not necessarily directly requested does not diminish the power of the user-action or the faith the user has in the information provider.
How the changes in how a search engine determines which signals to accentuate and which to ignore affect results remains to be seen. How these known signals will affect the work of search engine optimization professionals is fairly clear. SEOs and SEMs will have to spend a lot more time mining social media applications on behalf of their clients. The job of a SEO is to make web documents visible in search engines and other information applications. Getting a link to a client page in the news feeds of as many Facebook users as possible is a method of making client documents visible. It is also simply good SEO as we now know that those links are counted quite highly by Bing and by Google.
Jim Hedger
Jim Hedger is an organic SEO and digital marketing specialist. Jim has been involved in the online marketing industry since 1998 and a SEO since 1999. Best known as a broadcaster, interviewer, content writer and search industry commentator, Jim is a frequent conference speaker and organizer. He hosts the search focused radio show Webcology on WebmasterRadio.FM and is a WebmasterRadio.FM conference interviewer. Jim brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and creative thinking to each project. Preferring a teamwork approach, Jim strives to inform and train his clients and their staff to run and maintain their own search and social media efforts.
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