We have looked at the current state of search and hopefully you now understand why we at Epiphany Solutions focus our efforts on optimising for Google, MSN and Yahoo. With Google powering such a large percentage of the UK searching, often we are asked why we don’t just focus on Google alone. Well to answer this, it necessary to not only look at the past but also to look in the future, or at least the probable future. So here are my views on what we can expect to see happening in the world of search in the near to distant future.
It is no big secret that Microsoft provide the operating system and core software applications (MS Office, Internet Explorer etc.) for around 90% of personal computers in the UK. Around 80% of all Internet users access the Internet via Internet Explorer. With the current rise of integrated search (search boxes built into browsers, desktops etc.) it is only a matter of time before search is fully integrated into everyone’s home PC. With the launch of Microsoft’s next operating system currently named VISTA, the general release of IE7 and the next version of Microsoft Office we can expect to have the ability to search from anywhere. Open a new Word document and search will be there, turn on your PC and expect a search box to be somewhere on your default desktop. This will give Microsoft a huge base for putting MSN search in front of the general public and could cause some serious problems for
Google who incidentally are currently trying to sue Microsoft and force them to give users of VISTA and IE7 the option to use either MSN or Google for the searching.
Directories and niche engines are going to rise in popularity. With the Internet growing at such an unimaginable rate, even the major search engines are going to start to struggle to cope and results may start to suffer. This will lead to niche directories and topical search engines growing in opularity. Why trawl through all the spam on the overloaded search engines looking for a bed supplier when you can use a search engine that focuses solely on furniture and beds to produce a much cleaner and focused set of results.
Personalisation will become the norm. Search engines will use a users search history to better direct them to the results they need. Maybe users will be able to directly influence search by marking spam and removing it from their own personal search results.
These are of course my thoughts on the future of search. They may be right, they may be wrong only time will tell. In all honesty though, I would be very surprised if Microsoft don’t seize the coming opportunity to push MSN in our faces.