Last week, Google announced real time search and additional innovations to it core search offering. These announcements received significant media coverage, and I find the various viewpoints highly interesting. After reviewing a variety of publicly available sources, I've summarized my observations and opinions on the strategic implications for Google and the battlefield for search dominance.
Observation #1 - Real Time Search is a First Step in Addressing the Threat of Vertical Search Via Social Networks
I recently wrote a blog post about this challenge in Charlie Rose's Conversation with Ken Auletta: Innovation, Efficiency, and Future Challenges at Google. The partnerships with Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace enable Google to include updates from the Big 3 social networking sites into its search index. Previously, it took a few minutes for updates from social networks and blogs to filter into Google's search results (not the case anymore). By offering real-time social networking updates in a Google Search, they're decreasing the threat of users using these sites to conduct searches (particularly Twitter Search). Which leads us to search relevancy …
Sources: New York Times – Google Add Live Updates to Results
Observation #2 – A Killer Combination: Real Time Search with Google's Search Relevancy
According to the New York Times article, Biz Stone (one of Twitter's co-founders) think Google is better at providing relevancy to a search user's questions. In addition, TechCrunch hammers home how relevancy is a major strength of Google searches. MG Siegler, the author of the TechCrunch article made some great points:
* "Relevancy is perhaps the key to making real-time search a pillar of the web."
*How Google Fellow Amit Singhal positioned Google's relevancy advantage: "It's Google relevancy technology meeting the realtime web."
In Adam Ostrow's Mashable article, the partnerships with Twitter and Facebook are a concession by these companies that they can't outbuild (or outspend) Google when it comes to search. Just ask Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo …
Sources: Mashable – Google Launches Real-Time Search, New York Times – Google Add Live Updates to Results, Tech Crunch – Google Aims to Push the Speed of Light with Realtime Results. Seriously., New York Times – Out of the Search Business, Yahoo Shifts Its Focus
Observation #3 – Google Continues Expanding Search to the Mobile Space
Christina Warren (another of my favorite Mashable writers) made some intresting observations about the implications for Google's competitors:
* Microsoft's Bing: They're now going after a moving target because Google will continue to innovate in search.
* Yahoo: Even though it's has more market share than Bing, Yahoo is conceding real-time search to Google and Bing. Search isn't a focus for them. Their niche is as a service provider.
In addition, The Wall Street Journal points out that Bing has gained market share and credibility in search. Naturally, Google is going to protect its core business. These announcements show Google is still on the cutting edge of innovation and will continue to introduce new advancements.
Therefore, it's not surprising that these advancements focus on the mobile space:
* Google Goggles: Allows users to pull up information about a landmark or product by taking a picture from their cellphones. This service is currently only available on cellphones running Google' Android OS. According to Vic Gundotra, a Google VP of Engineering, the end goal is to "visually identify any image over time, merely by pointing a mobile device to it."
* Google Voice Search | Google Translation: Allows users to conduct search based queries by speaking into your phone (supports Mandarin, Japanese, and English). When you speak into your phone in English, your query can be auto translated into another lanaguage (i.e., Spanish) and the query can can be spoken back to you out loud — your phone becomes a Universal Translator.
* Google Local Search / Location-Based Search: Allows users to get information about locations and user ratings of nearby restaurants and shops. It will also provide "contextualized" suggestions relevant to the current location you're in.
Sources: Fast Company – Google Unveils Real Time Search, Translation, Image Searching, Goggles…Awkwardly, Forbes – Google Conquers Time, Mashable – What Real-Time Means for Google's Competitors, The Wall Street Journal – Google Rolls Out New Tools as it Battles Rival
Observation #4 – Personalizing Search is Going to be a Major Factor in Establishing Search Dominance
Silicon Alley Insider highlighted what Google considers The Four (4) Biggest Challenges in the Future of Search:
* Challenge 1: Modes – how and where people type in a search query
* Challenge 2: Media – how people manage and consume content
* Challenge 3: Language – how to help people conduct searches without communication barriers
* Challenge 4: Personalization – enable customized searches re: tastes, preferences, and locations
ComputerWorld emphasized the importance of Challenge 4 in the search rivalry between Google and Microsoft. Search is becoming more indvidualized and that includes finding relevant and applicable content from images, video, tweets, and blog posts. According to Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, search is "looking more like the dynamic lives of its users" because:
* Search is becoming more personal and granular
* Search results are now drilling down to include a single people's observations or opinions (whether you're famous or not)
Sources: ComputerWorld – Google, Microsoft's 'War of Innovation' Changing Face of Search, Silicon Alley Insider – Google Shows Off New Search Features to Top Bing
Observation #5 – These Innovations Bolster Google's Competitive Advantages in Advertising and Cloud Computing
Real-time search and the mobile innovations naturally support Google's vision towards cloud computing. Google wants users to spend more time on the Internet searching for information (specifically with their search engine and subsequently looking at more of their ads). By performing more Google searches, we'll provide more information on our online behaviors. This data gives Google the advantage in delivering more appropriate advertisements (and that increases the value of the ads it auctions).
Sources: Forbes – Google Conquers Time