Beyond search
For search to continue to evolve and thrive, it will ultimately need to move beyond this most basic and utilitarian of functions and perhaps incorporate some aspects of the other forms of content discovery, which would create more opportunities for marketers to leverage search in more creative ways.
For example, recommendation engines have long been successful for Amazon and other companies. Simple and software-based, they derive their success from tapping into the consistency and curiosity that underpins human behavior. The same is increasingly true of referrals.
Social networks like Facebook and information networks like Twitter have also become de facto search networks. We see links to content posted by those in our networks and determine -- on the basis of how we view that individual and what they typically post -- whether or not we will allocate time to checking it out. Think about how that behavior applies to your own networks and you'll see what I mean.
This type of behavior is all about leveraging known filters to discover content and it is very much at the serendipitous end of the spectrum of how we navigate and locate content across the web; a spectrum with directed search at one end and pure serendipity at the other. This spectrum is something that is currently dominated by directed search in terms of sheer volume, but over time this is likely to shift, as things like recommendations, referrals, sharing, and the rest continue to grow. Marketers will need to develop strategies that make them just as strong in these emerging areas as they are in search today -- perhaps more so as we discover more about the relative value of each.
Finally, the other aspect of this double-edged sword represented by the proliferation of content and the means by which we encounter it relates to the number of platforms now available to us. Thinking of screens alone, there is seldom a time when we do not have access to the web and a means to find content -- either by design or by circumstance -- that is of interest to us.
Mobile devices are particularly important in this regard, and whether through conventional search channels or through apps that aid us in the task of the moment (think Yelp!), our ability to find content has become untethered and relates as much to the context of where we are and what we're doing at the moment as it does to the channel we choose to do it through.
Even television -- the most primitive of the screens available to us -- allows for a basic level of search with regard to programming. The most interesting aspect of TV in this regard is its potential. Over the next few years TV is set to become much more like the web and the range of content and functions available to viewers will expand considerably. At that time it will be interesting to see how the TV business -- which by any measure is the 800lb gorilla of the media world -- adapts to and exploits the world of content discovery and the huge audiences it already has access to.
A world without search?
Finally, in order to think about how you might approach the development of your systematic use of those "other" means of finding content (recommendations, referrals, sharing, networks, serendipity etc.), indulge in a little creative scenario planning.
Imagine for a moment that search engines didn't exist -- rather as if you were coming out of an ice age and the dominant dinosaurs had been killed off. How would you set about developing a systematic approach to leveraging all those other opportunities available to you? How would you have to change the nature of your communications to be successful? Or would you back off from digital altogether?
If you don't think you got time to do this then you will probably never work out how to get value from what are inherently valuable and growing trends in the digital landscape.
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