**by Gord Hotchkiss**
In my last Just Behave
<http://searchengineland.com/digital-literacy-and-digital-diligence-19791>
, I talked about how the vast majority of search engine users never
go beyond the vanilla functionality of a search engine. They skip
along the surface of search, never diving deep into advanced queries,
filters or clicking on the tabs and links behind which lies some truly
impressive capabilities. This paradox had two sides: why don't we work
harder at search, and; if we never explore all that rich
functionality, why do search engines keep developing it? Why did
Google create Wonder Wheel, why does Bing offer several layers of
search refinements and why does Yahoo still have a sandbox? What's the
point of all this if we never use them?
Search engines keep testing the development waters because they have
too. Everyone acknowledges that we're still in the very earliest
stages of digital information searching. If we plotted this on an
evolutionary time scale, we'd be just emerging from the primordial
ocean. And no one is sure what search advancement might be the one
that tips the balance and creates a significantly more evolved
experience for the user.
Revolution through evolution
I've said on multiple occasions that Bing is an evolutionary
advancement in search, not a revolutionary one. Personally, I have no
problem with that. I believe all advancement is evolutionary in
nature. Revolutionary change is built on the back of hundreds of small
evolutionary steps forward. Sometimes, one of those steps creates a
tipping point and everything suddenly shifts dramatically.
Changes are changes: some cause nary a ripple in the vast pool of
natural selection, and some cause a species to start walking upright.
The problem is that you're never sure which one is going to be which.
The problem I have with Bing has nothing to do with product
development and everything to do with product marketing. The Bing
advertising campaign is promising something the search engine isn't
ready to deliver. Not yet, anyway.
So the engines have to innovate and develop new functionality, even
if nobody is ready to use it yet. Because some of that functionality
will form the foundation that the new generation of search will be
built upon.
The iPhone: revolutionary or evolutionary?
Everyone looks at the iPhone as a revolutionary product. But there's
nothing in the iPhone that didn't exist in some form before.
Multi-touch displays? Nimish Mehta developed the first example at the
University of Toronto in 1982, 25 years before the iPhone debuted. The
iPhone's ability to detect motion? The electronic brain behind that
revolutionary advancement is an accelerometer, technology that is
decades old.
There is no single revolutionary thing about the iPhone. What is
revolutionary is how all these evolutionary advancements came
together. The same will be true when Search breaks its current
paradigm. Suddenly the world will discover amazing new functionality
that's been around for years, hidden behind an unused tab or hidden
hyperlink.
Functionality designed for a new interface
What is guaranteed to change is the way we interact with search.
Search needs to become much more intuitive and deliver more relevance
in less real estate. Up to now, search engines have had the luxury of
delivering a results buffet , 20 to 25 links spread over a big
desktop display. It leaves it to the user to pick and choose the best
link, which hopefully the engine has placed to the upper left.
In the future, engines will have to get it right more often,
presenting the best result at the top of the page, so when we access
from a mobile device, we will see what we're looking for in a much
smaller display. Don't give me a buffet and ask me to choose. Deliver
me exactly what I'm craving right now, even if I'm not sure what to
ask for.
We also need to do more with search results. It's not enough for them
to be relevant. They also have to be useful. Anticipate what I want
the information for and then take me several steps down that path
without me having to do anything. Mash up results with other
applications and bring my ultimate objective several clicks closer.
In summary, to revolutionize search, we need to do three things:
Get it right 99.9% of the time in as little real estate as possible
Deliver those results with as little explicit user input as possible
Anticipate what the user is going to do with the results and take
them as far down that path as possible
All the things the engines are testing right now is hopefully getting
us closer to one or more of those three objectives. And while
individually those advancements aren't enough to get us to play with
the newest beta in Yahoo's Sandbox or Google's Lab, in combination
they might significantly change the game. Going from ho-hum to
revolutionary is sometimes not that big a leap. It's simply a small
evolutionary step in the right direction. Keep in mind, humans share
96% of our genetic code with chimpanzees. It's the 4% difference that
counts.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Gord Hotchkiss <http://searchengineland.com/author/gord-hotchkiss/>
is CEO of Enquiro <http://www.enquiro.com/>
, a search marketing firm that produces search engine user eye
tracking studies <http://www.enquiro.com/eyetrackingreport.asp>
and other research.
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