• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, April 15, 2013

It's a race among Apple, Epson, Google, Microsoft and others to develop the next fashion statement. Wearable electronics aims to become the next phase of mobile -- intimate computing. As a search marketer, can you imagine trying to optimize paid-search ads on a 1-inch screen?

A piece of cake, right? Well, not just plain "cake" but rather, insight from a company called Cake down the road in Newport Beach from where Jeff McCollum, president and founder, tells me wearable tech will become the next form of intimate technology -- perhaps surpassing the smartphone in acceptance. After seeing the wearable tech space transition for the past 10 years, I agree.

During his recent visit to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, McCollum saw the i'm Watch, which connects to the wearer's smartphone at a cost of $299, so the phone never leaves the pocket or the purse. It offers a 4GB Flash drive, 1.54" color TFT display, and runs on a custom version of Android.

About a year ago, execs at Bing and Google talked with MediaPost about how push technology from calendar entrees and geolocation would trigger content to the phone. Perhaps trigger content not to the phone, but now a personal computer on your wrist. Search integrates reviews and social to create search the platform, rather than media.

Does search as a platform dissolve paid-search ads on mobile devices as we know them today? Paid ads appear in Facebook news feeds based on other content. Will we see paid time rather than paid ads on the small screen, McCollum asked? 

We will likely see voice-activated search, wireless or Bluetooth connected headsets to listen to music or make and receive calls.

"I worked at Netscape with Mike McCue, who always talked about voice portals rather than content portals, so maybe the watch becomes an interactive play," McCollum said.