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RSSChange is the Constant
I have remarked to a number of people in the last week or two that I've seen more change in the past six months in the search results page than I have in the last 10 years. And all my interviewees seem to agree: We're just at the beginning of that change. Whether its personalization, universal results, Web 2.0 functionality or mobile, our search experience is about to change drastically. Search will become more relevant, more functional, more ubiquitous and more integrated. It will come with us (via our mobile devices) more often and in more useful ways. It will expand our entertainment options. It will change forever our local shopping trips. And it will all happen quickly.
As Search Goes, So Goes SEM
The question is, what does this do for search marketing? In a recent conversation, I was asked where the major innovation in the search marketing space was coming from. This was prefaced by the remark that when a well-known industry analyst was asked the same question, they (I'll keep the gender neutral, as there really aren't that many industry analysts out there) said there was almost no innovation coming from search marketers. They were "living off the fat." My first inclination was to jump to the defense of the industry, but this proved harder than I thought.
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I realized I haven't seen a lot of innovation lately. Certainly, the engines themselves are innovating. And I'm seeing innovation in adjacent areas (Web analytics, competitive intelligence). But I'm not seeing a lot happen in the search-marketing space. After a raft of proprietary bid management tools hit a few years ago, there's been little happening to move the industry forward. In fact, I've noticed a lot of SEM heads buried in the sand. We are not encouraging change; we are actively fighting it.
There are probably a lot of reasons why. First and foremost, I think a number of companies that have been in the space for a while are tired. I've touched on this in a previous three-part series in Search Insider. Secondly, it's tough to develop new tools or technologies when you're completely dependent on APIs or (worse still) scraping information from the search engines.
It's a very risky call to spend time and resources developing new tools or technologies that can be rendered useless by an arbitrary change at Google or Yahoo -- or made obsolete by the rapidly increasing pace of innovation.
Either Help Push Or Get Off!
Whatever the reason (and I'm sure the Search Insider blog will be getting a number of posts refuting my observation), the fact is that if search marketers are, in fact, riding the wave, it's coming to a crashing halt very soon. The need for innovation and changing your strategic paradigm is greater than ever. As the search engines change rules, those search marketers that want to survive must change. Innovation will become a necessity.
And, in the end, this will be a good thing.
The change that's happening in the search space is reflective of the change that is happening throughout marketing and advertising. It's the continuing evolution of a much more efficient marketplace, where connections between customers and vendors are made tremendously more effective through access to information on both sides.
The traditional uncertainty of advertising is being leeched out of the system, due, in large part, to the tremendous effectiveness of search. And as search becomes more relevant and useful, it will make those connections more reliable, less intrusive and more successful for both parties. The opportunity is there for search marketers to help advertisers successfully negotiate this more efficient marketplace. It remains to be seen if we're up for the challenge.
RSS FEEDS
Maybe a bit late, but I did'nt forget! http://adscriptum.blogspot.com/2007/09/les-moteurs-de-recherche-innovent.html Thanks again, Jean-Marie
Innovation in Search Advertising Programs is an utopia for the next two years. As far as I can see, Panama and AdCenter have just copied AdWords formula; also Ask is going to make the same step.
On the other hand, AdWords is improving his system mainly through tools which make more targeted ads.
www.lososeans.info
Undoubtedly keeping up with the ever changing search results is demanding, but it's not really innovation, is it? It's driven by necessity. Innovation means you're ahead of the curve, not trying to keep up.
Tom...
What you're talking about is disambiguating intent, which is what's driving personalization. One of the signals could be the context of the content you're interacting with, or the task you're engaged with. But that's just one path to the end goal.
And Leisa...
Sounds like you'll be interested in the white paper we're working on about the SERP:2010 and how to prepare for it. Ping me through my blog and I'll make sure you get on our notification list.
I think the resistance to innovation in Search stems from agencies and in-house marketers trying to navigate the changing currents that already exist (video, maps, etc). It seems that everyday Google is changing the results page and we're all working to keep up. Add to that the lack of new talent coming into the Search field and the increasing competition from previously "Sleeping Giants" and you've got a recipe for search change overload.
To your point, we will have to devote more time to learning, understanding and anticipating how Search Results will change.
Leisa Glispy eMarketing & Search Manager Armstrong World Industries www.armstrong.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/internetmarketingmanager
For example, I have a client that wanted to optimize their site on the term "New World" (a software product). Now, someone searching for "new world" might be looking for software - or they may have an interest in U.S. history, political activism, space exploration, or something else.
Ideally, search engines would have a way to contextualize this search so that the results returned (both organic and SEM) would be relevant to the person's actual interest. Yes?
Tom Pick webmarketcentral.blogspot.com
We (the organic folks) have lots of innovation or rather catching up to do with locaization, maps, videos, etc. becoming part of the clutter in the organic results. For example how do you make your company first when a mapped result pops up? Influencing the mapped result took a while to figure but now it's not that complicated, it just takes time, however changes do occur in that time.. so we must always be on our toes and find new ways to live within the guildelines of the search engines and provide relevant indexed content for search results.
Please feel free. MediaPost would like proper attribution and a link back to the original source. Merci!
G
Nice view, indeed. Would you authorize me to translate it in french and publish it on my blog ( http://www.adscriptor.com ) for french spoken people ? Many thanks, Jean-Marie