Where is Search Going?

Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. In the era of exploding digital content and incredible amount of information made accessible by the World Wide Web, Google’s mission summarizes why the “search” is so valuable. The amount of data is only as valuable as the access to it. And while the business of search was not understood well by most tech giants at its infancy, as good search translated into less time on the portal, Google’s business model, adopted and refined from Overture has proved that the business of search can be immensely profitable by bringing in advertisement into the equation. Such important, yet profitable business obviously attracted intense competition – including efforts from Microsoft and Yahoo. Judging from recent comments by Mark Zuckerburg, it seems like Facebook is also planning to expand into search business. This obviously excited investors of the social network as this represents an entire new business for Facebook. It is also interesting as Facebook’s search will likely to be differentiated from Google by adding social aspects to it (e.g., instead of searching for sushi restaurants in the neighbourhood, one might search the restaurants that friends have been to and “liked”).

What does all of this mean for the battle for search? I believe that baring extraordinarily inventions or functions by Microsoft or Yahoo, catching up with Google in the business of search would be difficult. A generation of people are wired to opening up Google for active search and it would require quite an innovation or social engineering to change such behaviour. The exception is Facebook (and Apple to some extent), which has the social angle and could steal some user mindshare away from Google, and its partnership with Microsoft’s Bing may prove that a more social-aware search is the next big thing in the current social era. However, as the search business is largely supported by ad dollars, the money will likely flow to the most effective place or where people go to for information. This remains a search tool instead of a social network and likely to stay that way – so I believe that Google, with its current services and on-going innovation such as Google Glass, will maintain its leadership in search.

Having said that, I do believe that the future of search is far from certain and I believe in two big trends. We perform search for information, but we also like simplicity. Google or Bing + Facebook’s search will likely continue to offer options after options based on your keywords inputted. Eventually, however, there will be a shift to a more one shot, one kill approach – that is, you will get one exact answer for what you are looking for. Apple’s Siri is a good example for what may come in the future. When you “ask” Siri, you get one most relevant answer instead of pages of website, advertisements and irrelevant information. On that note, the second trend I believe in is the innovation in the way we perform search, regardless of which company or engine is behind it. Again Siri is a good example, as we can speak to Siri through iphone to perform a search. Google Glass, can also serve for search engines when you look at objects, shops, merchandise, etc. In the end, I believe that the battle for search is hardly over. There are still much innovation and developments to come and it will continue to change the way to look for and consume information.