“Search is not a solved problem.” The statements are from Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president at Google and head of search, and serve to understand the essence of Google’s strategy regarding its search engine (and why marketers cannot rest on their laurels of what is going to happen with online search processes).
It may seem that you have already found out how things should be (you ask something ‘to the internet’ and the search engine responds), but the truth is that the market continues to advance and searches are becoming more and more refined. It is not just about new environments and search areas appearing, such as voice searches, but the very essence of how to search online is also in a constant process of renewal.
Google is not quite invented yet. The Wanted keeps adjusting and changing how it will look in the future. In general, it could be said that Google aspires to answer everything that the consumer may need to know with a search. This can become a major problem for the conversion in the SEO strategy, because Google aspires to offer more and more information directly, completing everything that the Internet user may need. It will no longer be necessary to click on multiple results – and thus get to the different indexed pages – to know the answers.
Everything will be much more complete on Google. But where is Google working and what does it expect from the future? The latest presentations and statements by the company’s executives allow us to outline two major guidelines on what tomorrow’s searches will be like.
The power of context
The first is that of context. As explained in The Verge , the first key point about searches will be the context. Google wants to understand much better how related topic groups work and what information they should offer.
Thus, it prepares the launch of some boxes called “Things to know” (things that you should know, it could be translated), in which from a search they send different subtopics. It is like a kind of related content, which can include, for example, a reference to a video or which stores have those products that you are looking for in the vicinity.
Searches will be visual
The second big change is in the visuals. Google wants users to use Google Lens a lot more and is betting on visual searches. With its latest developments in machine learning and artificial intelligence, Google aspires to use images to ask specific questions or to search for purchases.
For example, if your bicycle breaks down, you can take a photo and Google will identify the name of which part is broken thanks to your image. This weight of the image leads eMarketer to conclude that the future of Google searches will be visual: searches will be not only visual but also intuitive.
Google will be integrated as one more piece of guidance in many parts of life. For example, if you are looking for a skirt, you can then look for other clothing items with a similar pattern or color. And, as you remember from the analysis firm, this could be the beginning. Imagine that Google extends all this to potential video searches in the future does not seem so far-fetched.
