• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, May 16, 2014

The Internet of Things will require search marketers to think differently about content and search engine marketing. As search and the Internet continue to mature, the content turns into a data layer that requires marketers to mark up content with specific code, so search engines can easily recognize the images and content -- especially as search technology moves away from a box and toward voice and apps.

Company executives that manufacture electronics like Philips and Sony began talking about the Internet of Things around 2002. A dozen years later, Bing Senior Product Manager Duane Forrester explains his version of the transition and why it's important for search marketers to learn ways to mark-up content. It's about smartwatches and refrigerators, as well as security system and health and fitness devices. And yes, even implanting semiconductors and sensors in the human body allowing them to communicate through the Internet or satellite to medical monitoring systems or other devices.

Forrester provides tips on how Web sites can talk more clearly to search engines through code developed and spearheaded by companies participating in Schema.org. "Knowing clearly what content is and what it is associated with, and being able to reliably trust that information, helps us provide greater accuracy to searchers," he wrote in a post.

At the most recent Local Search Association conference in Huntington Beach, Calif., Steve Wozniak shared his views on wearable devices like Google Glass and smartwatches. He said these gadgets represent key trends in the electronics industry, but they may go the way of Bluetooth headsets because they duplicate functions in handsets. The key, as he notes, will be flexible displays that wearable devices would incorporate to provide a bigger, more flexible screen perhaps to wrap around the wrist.

It's the flexible screen that will bring a tablet-like interface to wearable devices. And it's content for these types of devices that will capitalize on Schema.org's mark-up language. In March, for instance, Trip Chowdhry, managing director of equity research at Global Equities Research, told us in a research note that Apple was awarded a patent by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describing a method for efficiently manufacturing curved touch surfaces, suggesting the company may be experimenting with curved iOS device displays.

Ten years ago executives in the electronics industry spoke about connecting radio frequency identification tags to clothing that would allow point of sale (PoS) systems in retail stores to monitor inventory online. The items each had their own Internet Protocol (IP) address and all connected to the Internet. The Pew Research Center's recently published report on digital life in 2025 and the Internet of Things provides opinions from experts on how the world will change.