The future of search according to The Drum Search USA Awards judges
Search is a fundamental element to any marketing plan and every marketer and brand leader wants to know its future. Whether you use Google or Bing, search engines will take a essential role on a day to day basis but spearhead the success of brands.
The future of search according to The Drum Search USA Awards judges
The Drum spoke to three experts from Microsoft, Acronym and Distilled, who are all on the judging panel for The Drum Search Awards USA, on where they see the future of search heading.
Purna Virji, senior manager of global engagement, Microsoft
The future of search is arguably the future of marketing, perhaps all commerce. As consumers and business people, our interaction with the digital and offline worlds will be increasingly assisted and intermediated by personal assistants. Digital assistant’s utility is based in combining the capabilities of machine learning, the wider context of the knowledge graph and personal knowledge of the user.
It’s impossible to predict what business will look like in 2027, except that customers aren’t going to want less convenience, irrelevant information or slower responses. In a system that’s going to be increasingly driven by product specifications and personal necessities instead of media, the solution at the intersection of easy, effective and affordable always wins
In marketing, the complexity of using multiple data points limits their use in targeting and personalization. AI offers an opportunity to use these variables in concert, starting with a goal and working from there.
Mike Grehan, chief marketing officer, Acronym
People will always want to satisfy their information needs one way or another. Right now, it’s fair to say that web search engines are still probably the most popular resource. But as personal digital assistants become smarter and more aware of your searching habits, as well as you general information needs, the less you’ll need to go looking and the more that information will be spoon fed to you.
I believe the future of search will be more of an “information provider” pulling from multi modal sources, frequently predicting your information needs ahead of time. And structured data will play a much more important role in general purpose search as well as specialized and vertical information resources.
Mike Teluka, vice president, Distilled
In short, we expect a lot more of the same (keyboard-input search on personal devices), with interesting but limited growth in new formats. Google will continue to swallow basic informational search, forcing publishers of general information (facts, definitions, basic recipes, etc) to build better products with clear value propositions.
Competition is increasing, and in-house teams are growing savvier as they hire-in a mobile/digital-first generation of marketers. Agencies will have to deliver deeper specialization, 'productized' service models and technology that in-house teams will have a hard time "just doing themselves."
Virji, Grehan and Teluka are judges for The Drum Search Awards USA. The entry deadline is Thursday 30 August, download your entry pack now and show the industry the outstanding work you have been producing.
Sponsors of the awards are Sempo