evolution of search | doug platts | cyprus 2011

Doug Platts, Head of Natural Search

iCrossing UK

EVOLUTION OF SEARCH

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THE ORIGINAL PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS

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Architecture

ContentLink

Reputation

Can search

engines access the

site and pages

Is there search term

rich, optimised on-

page content

Is the site a reputable

resource, based on

references from other

sites

FUNDAMENTALS

EVOLUTION DEVELOPING SIGNALS OF SEARCH

VINCE THE BIG BRAND UPDATE

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CAFFEINE INCREASED SPEED OF GOOGLE’S INFRASTRUCTURE

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MAY DAY IT’S ABOUT QUALITY LINKS

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PERSONALISATION INTEGRATION OF PAST SITE VISITS

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SOCIAL SIGNALS PERSONALISATION: INTEGRATION OF THE SOCIAL GRAPH

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PANDA USER DATA BASED JUDGMENT OF THE QUALITY OF CONTENT

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+1 BUTTON USER VOTES ON THE QUALITY OF CONTENT

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THE OUTCOME WHAT DOES GOOD SEARCH LOOK LIKE?

• Universal Search – more than 10 web pages. A

richer, more relevant experience of video, review and

image content

• Google Instant – being visible through the user

journey

• Google Preview – clear creative message. An

extension of your listing/ad

• Meta Descriptions – your elevator pitch

• Google +1 – your social graph recommending sites

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ESTABLISHED

BLENDTHE TYPICAL SHAPE OF SEO FOR BRANDS

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Factor strength

High Low

THE NEW

APPROACHSEARCH VISIBILITY AS AN OUTCOME OF A CONNECTED BRAND

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Factor strength

High Low

JUST

ANNOUNCEDBING / FACEBOOK TIE-IN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPYVqHZKF2g

Trusted Friends

• “Liked” Results, Answers & Sites

• Personalized Results

• Collective IQ

• Popular Site Content

• Integration of Social Messages

• Conversational Search

• Expanded Facebook Profile Search

• Travel Wish List & Friends Who Live Here

• Flight Deals

• Shared Shopping Lists

YOUR SOCIAL

GRAPHSEARCH & SOCIAL: TWO CONVERGING TRENDS

> Realtime Search & Social

Signals

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> A better understanding of who we are and what we’re trying

to accomplish and a web that is much more dynamic and

timely.

> Together, these two things demand that search becomes

more temporally relevant, in addition to just being

semantically relevant.

> Search is moving from being “stateless” to being very much

in the here and now.

> For example, conversations in social media happen very

much in real time. As we begin to apply what’s happening in

the social graph as an additional ranking criterion to the

information indexed in a search engine, interesting things

begin to happen.

USER INTENT WHAT ARE YOU REALLY LOOKING FOR

> Search focussed around

our intent

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> When we use a search engine for a specific task, it’s

actually part of a much bigger and more complex task

> These life events (and they don’t all have to be this

momentous) bring with them a myriad of needs for specific

information.

> We plug in the pieces as we gather them, but the heavy

lifting is all done by us.

> But what if search knew our “master intent” and offered a

much higher level of assistance, going out and gathering all

the information, filtering it based on our requirements and

guiding us through the entire process?

LANGUAGE

BARRIERMORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY

> Looking beyond the

limitations of language

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> There is a challenge in our current paradigm of search, built

on the concept of relevancy. It depends heavily on the

ability of a machine to understand human language.

> Search engines reliance on parsing language isn’t as critical

as it was before. As we do more things online, we leave

more signals to help a search engine determine our intent.

> Search engines now gather more information about the

current situation of the user: location, their current activity,

their place in the social grid.

> All these things can augment a query, allowing for a more

useful experience.

BEING USEFUL BEING USEFUL TO ME

> Usefulness depends on the ability to

know who we are, what we’re doing and

what we hope to accomplish

> The EU have recently ruled on the use

of cookies and new regulations which

will mean that companies will need a

user's permission to store a cookie on

their devices

1. Audit the use of all cookies on

your website

2. Assess and rank the privacy

implications of these

3. Decide on an appropriate solution

with which to gain user consent

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> Search & User Privacy

MOBILE SEARCH BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT

> Mobile search will not be search as we

currently understand it

> An explosion of tablets and mobile

products, and apps

> iPhone and iPad apps, which have passed

200,000 and are growing by 20,000 per

week

> Web-browsing, particularly on mobile

devices is becoming mostly App-focused,

not Web focused

> Apple's new search engine will not compete

with Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo! in

indexing Web pages, but it will index Apps

> http://blip.tv/file/3709806

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THANK YOU

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@dougplatts