Something has been happening on the Google SERPs (Search
Engine Result Pages). It is the very thing that the FTC just closed the case
on. It is the delivery on the promise that Larry and Sergey made from the
beginning. That Google would organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible. The keywords (pun intended) are “organize” and “access”.
You see none of this information has ever belonged to Google. They are just the
interface.
Ah, the interface. Not long ago it was about getting you off
Google as quickly as possible:
“Our goal is to make
sure that people can find what they’re looking for and get off the page as
quickly as possible.”
– Marissa Mayer, January 2007
Call it better organization, quicker access or more
relevance but more and more the middle layer of the “result” is pushed a step
closer. Nothing that has ever happened in Search, NOTHING, is as disruptive.
“we’re trying to move from answers that are
link-based to answers that are algorithmically based, where we can actually
compute the right answer. And we now have enough artificial
intelligence technology and enough scale and so forth that we can”
– Eric Schmidt, May 2011
This is having impact across digital media that few have
thought about yet. Even fewer have strategies to succeed in this new era. The
quickest losers (some examples below) will be weather queries (goodbye Weather
Channel on the web, hello Weather Channel as an app), online dictionaries
(goodbye AdSense revenue) and of course Wikipedia.
Wikipedia will be the largest loser.
In many respects Wikipedia came to epitomize the first era
of commercial Search. Those 10 blue text links and always near the top of those
results, Wikipedia. Those days are over.
Wikipedia will still serve a great purpose for Google. It
will still get massive traffic. It will always be the standard bearer for user
generated content and the possibilities of webscale. But its glory days are
behind it. A whole generation of web users are coming online that will never
have a need for it. Traffic will drop precipitously and over time support. The
rise in mobile devices (as the example queries above so clearly demonstrate) will
only serve to expedite this.
The fact that so few people even in digital media have been
paying attention to this sea change is not new for Search. Search snuck up on
people to begin with. Many people thought directories, especially Yahoo and ODP
would rule forever. Search ads were not even counted by the Interactive
Adverting Bureau their first few years of existence. Things called Rich
Snippets, Linked Data and RDFa are changing everything and this is boring stuff for most media people because
they have no concept of the consequences.
Maybe it is because these changes have been a slow boil. I
first wrote about this stuff (can it be?) 6.5 years ago.
But while the pace of change has been slow its result is the culmination of
everything people thought the web would become, especially its inventor.
All of this is going to be advantageous to Google’s bottom
line. They are just too smart and have been preparing for this too long. Google
gets justifiably raked over the coals for lack of understanding how to leverage
the changes in web use. They get far,
far, too little respect for their vision and understanding of how to leverage
the changes in web technology.
Fewer searchers leaving Google and going to other sites mean
more people clicking on ads on Google O&O. It means Google takes even more
share of digital ad spend – now approaching the value of all of print and half
of television.
Where does that leave everyone else?
1) Brands will be more important than ever
2) EVERYONE will be in the advertising/marketing business
3) Content must have value beyond the “rich snippet”
Navigating that construct will be where the game is played.
The search for information has changed forever. It is now right
in front of you. Next will be getting it to you before you even know you need
it. Until then, enjoy the relevance and plan your digital media strategies accordingly.
jonathanmendezblog.com 
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