• by February 21, 2006

Where will search go next?

If you're in the online media, marketing, and advertising business, it's a question you can't afford to ignore. Not that you've been ignoring it; you're probably wrestling with it in all aspects of your business. Search isn't just about buying keywords anymore.

As contributor Steve Smith points out in this month's cover story, search is going places fast -- leaping from the desktop to video, mobile devices, local directories and the Yellow Pages, TV, and other platforms. Search, says Smith, has quickly become the all-important and ubiquitous tool that matches both content and laser-targeted marketing to our desires on the Web via cell phones, WiFi-enabled laptops, digital video recorders, TV, iPods, video game consoles, and set-top boxes.

It's increasingly clear that the evolution of search is transforming all content and media, and that it will profoundly affect their distribution. Smith explores the next steps at search startups and flags developments in local, mobile, video, classifieds, and Yellow Pages search. If you want to know where search is going, we think you should begin your mission right here, with OMMA.

In this month's Cross-Media Case Study, Alex Miller highlights the work of Esurance, an online insurance provider that was born on the Web five years ago. A big believer in online media and marketing, Esurance recently turned to offline media -- TV and radio -- to work in tandem with its online efforts.

Gavin O'Malley returns with the Creative Roundtable, which wasn't actually set at a table but on a bed at Duvet, a New York City club known for its comfy mattress seating. O'Malley and CO. debated the merits of the campaign touting AT&T's merger with SBC Communications. Luckily, no one fell asleep.

Finally, this month, we're at the OMMA Conference and Expo in Los Angeles March 27-28. If you're in L.A., we hope you make the most of the programming and show floor. You might just find what you are searching for.