Future of Search 🔍

Google search is still the primary (or sole) place a consumer would turn to when they needed an immediate answer. You enter in a phrase, click on top links and get the information you were trying to find. But now there are other places (our favourite social networks) where we are spending time on, we get our “information” from peers on social networks.

Think about it when you want to buy something immediately, you will often bypass Google and head directly to Amazon or Flipkart. Or when booking a movie ticket we head directly to bookmyshow. The way how and with what we access information today is dramatically changing.

So, what does the future hold for search engines?

Contextual search “simple data points, that add a layer of context to the content in the search results page”. The search engine will continue to ‘personalise’ the search results based on the ‘simple’ data it’s collecting. For example, if it’s raining in your area it may remind you to take your umbrella or show you activities to do indoors — a feature that isn’t far off from becoming a reality. The emergence of connected, people driven intelligence and voice interactions is rapidly changing the way how we search. Data is getting organized, structured, predictive, fast and relevant. Thanks to advancements in AI, ML and DL.

But the world is still full of hidden (& often missed) opportunities, lying beyond a dozen blue links.

In the era of perceived and contextual engagement, ‘Dis-engagement’ is rising. I certainly got conditioned by years of using Google to think that a link is an answer, it is not. Now people crave for a conversation (not with a bot, real human) — to just give that information without ten blue links! “What you can’t really do in a web browser is look at a movie trailer, read seeded reviews and guess ‘What other movies should I consider watching?’ This can be solved by going sideways through human knowledge. This dude, named “Search” who’s also a stranger is our most intimate, and trusted friend pointing in the right direction, or occasionally giving an unsettling glimpse into the world.

As we expect more & more convenience from technology, do we expect less from each other?

These days, those phones in our pockets are changing our minds and hearts because they offer us three gratifying fantasies. One, that we can put our attention wherever we want it to be; two, that we will always be heard; and three, that we will never have to be alone. And that third idea, that we will never have to be alone, is central to changing our psyches. Because the moment that people are alone, even for a few seconds, they become anxious, they panic, they fidget, they reach for a device. This is also me at a checkout line or at a red light. Being alone feels like a problem that needs to be solved. And so people try to solve it by connecting. But here, connection is more like a symptom than a cure. It expresses, but it doesn’t solve, an underlying problem. But more than a symptom, constant connection is changing the way people think of themselves. It’s shaping a new way of being. We have the greatest chance of success if we recognize our vulnerability.