The Future of Search is Here

Create a Broad Footprint on the Web

I frequently advise “create a broad footprint on the web” if you want to be found by your target audience.  Create content that will be found easily across the entire web. In my book, Marketing 2.0, I harp on this a lot.

When people search by keywords, increasingly the results presented to them are diversified. The conventional search results have been known as “web results.” We refer to them as organic results and paid (or sponsored) results. The latter is also known as pay-per-click advertising. Some refer to it as SEM.

However, increasingly we’re seeing results delivered to the searcher which are not limited to conventional web results. Two examples of the future of search results (available today) are WebMynd (a plug-in for search engines) and Kosmix (a standalone search engine). Let’s look at each one in the screenshots below by doing a search on my name: “bernie borges.” I use my name as the example for two reasons. It is not a common search phrase so you wouldn’t expect to find a bazillion search results. And, there is a diversified mix of content to illustrate my point. You should experiment using your name, or other relevant search phrases.

These search results show several of my organic listings including my company website, my blog, my LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile and other content destinations…

The WebMynd results which display along the right side of a Google search result (but can not displayed that way in this blog post) shows results found in other web media including LinkedIn, Twitter, Amazon, Wikipedia and YouTube.

The Kosmix results also list various types of content ranging from blogs, video, photo images and good old fashion web listings in Google.

The point I want to stress is that the future of search is based on content delivered to the user from various locations across the web! Think of it logically. If you search for a topic, do you want the search engine to limit the content they offer you? Don’t you want the choice of drilling down on various types of content on your search topic from various locations across the web?

The future of search is NOW!  It’s only a matter of time before Google presents search results to us in this manner.

Are you prepared? Do you produce just website content? Or do you offer a diversified mix of content that allows you (your business, your products, etc.) to be found on the web?