Coursing through the carpeted hallways of the Hilton NYC convention center, thousands of people from every demographic were either entering or exiting the various lecture halls. This was not to say that the traffic at the booths was small, but the numbers of people who were there just to gather information was dizzying. The 2006 Search Engine Strategies Convention in New York City was everything an attendee or sponsor could hope for. Kicked off by a keynote speech given by Ask.com’s Barry Diller, it’s been awhile since rumor circulated concerning the possible sale of Ask.com. However, when Diller says: “search will be everywhere,” in regards to the future, it may be assumed that the seasoned media vet has no plans to retire his jersey in the near future. More players mean more competition. This bodes very well for the niche players, too. The torch of search innovation will be carried forward by the “have-nots;” companies still hungry to improve search in order to attract new users, because the game is far from over.
I walked the convention as a representative of a niche player, ConductSearch.com. And like any search specialist, I’m excited to see Ask.com focusing efforts on the quality of the search process, as opposed to merely scheming to retain a massive user base, like Google or Yahoo. There’s nothing wrong with Google’s applications, but is its focus to improve and continue revolutionizing search, or to preserve its own dominance? Is amazing map technology advancing the search process or does it keep us talking about Google?
Diller, in keeping the focus on search instead of shares, is pointing Ask.com in the right direction - one that benefits end users. Perhaps they are looking to attract the discriminating web surfer before reeling in every Internet user. You may not have heard of many sponsors and exhibitors at the SES, but be sure that most believe, like Diller, that search is just getting started.
Search is evolving and everyone, like Ask.com, seems to be focused on performance. In fact, the countless exhibitors at the conference each had their own search implementations that better the process. Great ideas were everywhere. It’s a good thing the conference was well stocked with accompanying literature, because I could never have remembered it all. A simple case of information overload perhaps, but still indicative of the innovation that’s flooding the search industry. Everybody seems to have some new proprietary innovation; everyone wants to build the Next Big Thing.
One thing to note about the evolution of Ask.com is its link to bloglines, the feed aggregator. XML feeds are vital to search engines, particularly to ones that want to stand out in terms of higher performance for their users. Ask.com is not gunning for tops in aggregate search (yet), but is instead refining the search base it already has. And the functionality of XML feeds plays right into this development.
We love to see any search engine focus on performance; since ConductSearch.com’s particular technological search innovation is the world’s first real-time, self-updating fraud protection system. The key word? Reliability. We’re helping search engines, big or small, improve their product.
Let’s go back a couple of years. Do you remember when search was a pain in the neck? Weeding through spam and bogus or misdirected results was like trying to watch television through static. (Does anyone remember static?) All that spam and word cramming tended to ruin the search experience. Google is largely credited with the vast improvement in results, and shares credit with Overture for developing the model for today’s search advertising. And, while this has been a joy for the user (ie. better results, increased faith in the search process); it’s not without its occasional drawbacks, like the scourge of click fraud.
Click-fraud has proliferated in the new age of search- further proof that search needs improving. Users at their computers are largely unaware of the risks or dangers– only advertisers get hurt, which means easy money for crooks, and it doesn’t hurt the big engines. And even then, advertisers might not figure it out – click-fraud is an almost untraceable crime. Ironically, it’s a shadowy crime in a measurable arena.
The gradual effects, however, are corrosive. Once an advertiser feels they’ve been taken, the mistrust that develops as a result can spook them from making future online campaigns. Everyone, eventually, gets hurt: advertisers, users, engines.
Trust is an essential element in any business model and ConductSearch.com’s technology serves to build trust by sniffing out fraudulent bot-clicks. Thusly, we’re just another niche tackling a larger problem to enhance the overall search process. If smaller companies don’t tackle stuff like this, who will? After all, it doesn’t cost the search engines any money.
The road towards better search should serve us well, just as the growing use of search, estimated to increase an additional 26% this year alone, will too. There are doubters; some legitimate (a Google executive claimed last week that search is not an infinite resource, and it made headlines!), some laughable. One clown media commentator, who shall remain unnamed, thinks that search (and blogs) is actually dying out because many users have found their favorite sites and will not continue to explore the Internet in the future. Astounding. His implication is that people have discovered all they need from the Internet, as in, the bus has stopped folks, now get off. I don’t think so.
Search is simply getting better one application and innovation at a time. Seeing so many exhibitors at SES makes me suspect that the best innovation is coming from upstart online companies, who wish to make names for themselves by providing a better product. Almost any conference attendee would predict a continuation in search improvement, but few are going to sit on the sidelines to watch others do it. Change is up to us, the innovators, and not those who look to preserve an existing user base.
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