The future of search

On Wednesday night I spoke at an Australian Interactive Media Industry Association event with the scary topic headline “The future of search”. I joined Amye Saunders, senior SEO consultant at 24/7 Real Media, Sandeep Baruah, group manager of online search at Sensis, and Jen Hanrahan, e-communications officer at Plan International.

Broadly speaking, we all looked at the evolution of new technology platforms that are changing the traditional methods for web access as well as content; and the way search engines are now allowing us to optimise all our content (video, images, local and text).

Amye did a great talk on mobile search, where it’s headed and things we all need to think about before it really begins to make an impact for online businesses and users alike. Being an experienced industry leader, Amye’s advice for us was not to drop everything and rush headlong into mobile search unprepared.

In practical terms, mobile search is really only applicable to certain types of businesses. “Mobile web isn’t about browsing or surfing, it’s about searching and finding,” she said.

Industries that should consider getting into mobile search are the ones that are relevant to users who use their phones to find important local information quickly.

These include location-based businesses – restaurants, medical centres, theatres, bars, florists, trades, weather etc. And not so location based – news, sports, entertainment, Facebook, MySpace, Google etc.

Jen Hanrahan spoke about her experience with search optimisation and online marketing for the child sponsorship organisation Plan International. It was a great perspective from an organisational rather than an agency side of things.

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