• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 31, 2015

The era where a mere click and impression are top metrics is dead, but as Julia Greenberg, staff writer at WIRED, puts it, "someone still needs to shoot this zombie in the head." The events that will take place in 2016 might surprise even seasoned marketers and advertisers.

Amazon will force brands and agencies to rethink their global advertising and marketing strategies as they build out a logistics and delivery arm. Yahoo will be sold to an investment company in Asia-Pacific for its data. This coming year, search advertising and technology will integrate more finely into other media and platforms and direct link to knowledge graphs that will play a major role. Google, Bing and perhaps Yahoo will work to keep a balance between search on the Web and in apps.

Consumers will rely more on their voice and gestures to search for information. Search technology will integrate online merchandising for retailers to improve ecommerce. The industry will partner with governments to begin laying down some laws to support global commerce.

Now that the predictions are out of the way, here's what you found interesting in 2015.

Search Marketing Daily Top 10 In 2015

1) Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Others Jointly Form Open Container Project: A coalition of industry leaders put aside their differences, joining forces to create the Open Container Project (OCP), chartered to establish common standards for better interoperability.

2) Advertising Industry Losing Billions To Ad-Blocking Software: The estimated loss of global revenue due to blocked advertisements in 2015 totals more than $21.8 billion, and will rise to $41.4 billion in 2016, according to a study.

3) Google Goes For 100% Ad Viewability: Google will introduce 100% viewable ads in the next few months, bringing all campaigns bought on a CPM into view across the Google Display Network (GDN).

4) Google DoubleClick Network Hit With More Malvertising: Researchers at Malwarebytes Labs discover another malvertising campaign, likely from the same group responsible for the recent attack on The Huffington Post and Zillow.

5) Technology Marketing Chart Shows Exploding Landscape: The explosion of tech companies in the marketing space continues to dizzy even the savviest experts. It's confusing because many companies operate across multiple sectors.

6) Disney Finds Emotion Next Targeting Metric For Advertising, Marketing: Emotional response is becoming the next significant measurement tool to target advertisements from search to social, display, video and email.

7) Google's Schmidt Tells Us The 'Internet Will Disappear,' Microsoft Bing Defines What That Means: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said during the panel "The Future of the Digital Economy" at the World Economic Forum that "the Internet will disappear," replying to a question about the evolution of the Web.

8) Under Armour Gets Gritness, Furthers Connected Strategy: Under Armour has quietly acquired Austin-based Gritness, a search engine that helps people find and join workouts, Search Marketing Daily has learned.

9) Makes Historic Move To Separate Digital From Print: YP says it will separate its digital advertising and print directory businesses to create two companies.

10) Bing, Google, Publishers Lose Billions Of Dollars From Blocked Ads: One company attempts to estimate Google’s financial loss from ad block. Of the estimated $41 billion in revenue Google reported in 2014, PageFair estimates that $17.6 billion came from the U.S.

SearchBlog Top 10 In 2015

1) Only One-Third Of Kids 12-15 Know The Difference Between Search Results And Ads: Ofcom released a study showing that 69% of kids ages 12 to 15 cannot tell the difference between a Google search ad and the organic results on a search engine query page.

2) How Search Will Capitalize On Wearable Devices, Internet Of Things: Deep-linking will eventually allow people to search across every connected device -- not just across the Web. More than finding information within an app on a smartphone, the technology will turn the link structure into a local area network, making it possible to search and discover content across any linked device. It

3) Local Marketing Essentials For Small Business Saturday: Small local businesses are known for these types of specialty items and handmade goods. The businesses are so important to communities that American Express spearheaded a day to celebrate them.

4) How Google, BBDO, OMD Worldwide Rethink Storytelling: Marketers and advertisers may need to look past what they view as "traditional" to determine what makes an ad worth reading or watching, according to Google's Art, Copy & Code Team.

5) 70% Of Consumers Use Three Channels Or More To Research A Purchase: Findings from the latest Blue Nile Research study, The Content That Compels People To Buy, examine the content and channels that compel shoppers to buy. 

6) Fiat, Nissan Lose The Message In Super Bowl Ads: Automotive brands ran some quirky advertisements during the Super Bowl. Some might even say they tried to pump up performance, but ran out of steam.

7) Will Project Fi Lead Google To Acquire T-Mobile Or Sprint?: It's a long shot, but I woke up this morning contemplating whether Google, in the long term, will continue to pay Sprint and T-Mobile to run data and voice over their respective networks or simply dig deep into their coffers and buy one of the companies.

8) Bing's Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords: Keywords related to services, rather than physical items, rank at the top of the most expensive keywords on Bing, per an analysis released Thursday.

9) Google Executive Speaks Out On Ad Blocking At Advertising Week: Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s top advertising executive, told Advertising Week attendees that "crappy ad experiences" are behind the increase in ad-blocking tools -- and that Google, along with the advertising and publishing industries, must fix it.

10) YP Automates Local And Mobile Search Buys For National Brands: Darren Clark, CTO at YP.com, on Tuesday announced the launch of ypSearch Marketplace, a keyword-bid local search marketplace that enables national brands to reach YP's 80 million monthly users across its network.