The Future Of Search: Will #1 Always Be #1?

[morestar]

According to this article Search Atheism On The Rise (http://techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/search-atheism-on-the-rise/), only 51% of people trust information provided by search engines and that number is down from 62% in 2006.

That's interesting and to add to that, it goes to show, once again, don't optimize for rankings, but do so for your users.

Humans are getting smarter, children are adapting to internet/computer usage quicker and faster than we ever did when were were that age (30s here) and with that comes the understanding that what Google or other search engines bring up as search results may not be the authority on the subject or is always worth debating. Even though your website is #7 or on page two, remember there is still a good chance that you're site is doing pretty good in the search results.

Being #1 on Google or other search engines is surely one thing but getting hit for long tail searches or deep search results is another.

:D

[Tubby]

I wonder what the percentage would be if, say for example a study group were to attend a 2 hour course on how to use search engines.

This thought comes to mind because I know someone that can never find what they are looking for. I was talked into giving some help the other month when they heard that a picture of a particular house was on the net after a recent flood. I asked this person to type in the name of the town - the word flood and the year 2009 -( Kajabbi flood 2009 ) just to see how we go - the result
The town the floods forgot - Queensland - BrisbaneTimes - brisbanetimes.com.au (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/the-town-the-floods-forgot/2009/01/07/1231004060918.html)

I asked her what was typed into google, the answer 'myname' and 'house flooded '

Another thought - Atheism, is a funny thing . . If you do not believe in it - you never find the little miracles . .

In a proper sense, this town does not really get flooded. It simply gets isolated for a few weeks annually.

[inertia]

Brand, brand, brand... Thats what Google told us months ago and it looks to be even more poignant now. As the Google machine expands into every home/age group/country etc the average user will become increasingly more aware of advertising/spam etc so they look for links and brands that they trust.

I also think there is some serious education needed for all the non savvy users who use Google each day. Maybe Google should approach that in some of it's TV ads?

I sit with friends and watch how they search and it's mind boggling sometimes! Then I'll get on and show them a few tricks like "searches", negative keywords, site searches etc and they love it! It's easy if someone show you how!

By watching and learning how the average user searches that you can really perfect your SEO practices.

[angilina]

According to this article Search Atheism On The Rise (http://techcrunch.com/2008/01/17/search-atheism-on-the-rise/), only 51% of people trust information provided by search engines and that number is down from 62% in 2006.

That's interesting and to add to that, it goes to show, once again, don't optimize for rankings, but do so for your users.

Humans are getting smarter, children are adapting to internet/computer usage quicker and faster than we ever did when were were that age (30s here) and with that comes the understanding that what Google or other search engines bring up as search results may not be the authority on the subject or is always worth debating. Even though your website is #7 or on page two, remember there is still a good chance that you're site is doing pretty good in the search results.

Being #1 on Google or other search engines is surely one thing but getting hit for long tail searches or deep search results is another.

:D

People who have little experience in searching, they can easily find trusted information on the internet.
Nowadays, major newspapers post news on the internet and they are a reliable source of information. Then sites like Wikipedia provides reliable info.
Also, search engines are getting smarter every day :)

[williamc]

The funny part of this story? I heard all this back in 99 too. Search isn't going anywhere, there simply is no better way (in the foreseeable future) to find what you need on the web.

[claybutler]

One, I'm not so sure I believe the survey results. But it also doesn't matter. Everyone releies heavily on the search engines. This is not going to change ever. Search engines will evolve of course, but it will continue to be the number one place to start when you don't know where to start.

Hmmm...that's a good slogan "The number one place to start when you don't know where to start."

Whether people "trust" search engines is besides the point. They use them because they have to. I use or interact with lot of things I don't completely trust. That's normal. I don't see it as a crisis of confidence. People are simply getting more sophisticated, more discriminating and a whole lot more demanding. Used to be we were happy to find anything. Now we get upset if we can't find the most obscure piece of information on our first try.

[NoHarleys]

I wonder what the percentage would be if, say for example a study group were to attend a 2 hour course on how to use search engines.

I understand this quote quite well. I am a lot of my friends go-to guy to find stuff on the web. Even some of more tech savvy friends ask me to do their search work for them as they can never find the information they want. Searching for information over the years I have learned plenty of tricks to track down what I need rather quickly.

But I understand why people have less faith in the engines. A friend of mine told me when he is looking for information he knows to just skip the first couple of results as they are all just trying to sell him something. At least that tells me SEO is working for getting sites to the top. But this also brings in the trust issue since a lot of people are just wanting the info....not to purchase a related product. It is nice to see that the major search engines are really pushing their "shopping" search results separate. Maybe one day shopping results vs. information results will be better separated. But for the time being I guess we just have to learn how to decipher for ourselves what we are searching for.

[simonm]

Reading between the lines:

Users no longer trust search engines to provide the right result when they use a short key phrase
Users are using longer key phrases - their search skills are improving!

The web site that used to be 3rd page is now 1st page for a more refined search.

To my mind, the intelligent wide use of search is just going to grow and grow! And we will see all sorts of other means of accessing web based data, the percentage relying on traditional search might decline but the volume will grow.

[morestar]

Well so far I cannot disagree with some of the facts that are before us related to this issue.

I myself am experienced enough to know the first 20 results may not be authority sites and even if they are the information could be unreliable. This causes me to to look deeper many times. I even overlook the first listing many times too - of course for many differing reasons but I do nonetheless.

And then we have personalized search and Caffeine.

What's first place anymore?

[simonm]

What's first place anymore?

Hopefully our websites!

[jxw]

I want to thank the regulars and the pros for this discussion. I have often worried about being #1 in search results. My little fun site is #1 on some search engines for some keywords, page 2 on others, etc., etc. But I have often worried about being #1 as folks might think my site is a sponsored result and skip over it. I enjoyed Tubby's link to the Kajabbi flood of '09 and followed it with a search on Google of the Kalkadoon Hotel. The first results (gdaypubs and others) make a stop at the hotel a good prospect. Tubby's weblog is in 7th position. He says the hotel is closed and he links to an article from 20 April 2009 about why it closed. This put a stop to including Kajabbi on my future vacation plans. (I am in regular contact with folks at the U of QLD, so this isn't just an off-the-wall comment.) Apparently, there might be misinformation in the first six results. As has been said on these forums before, #1 isn't always the most up-to-date or the most authoritative. Again, thanks for providing a perspective about search results we all should think about.

[morestar]

I want to thank the regulars and the pros for this discussion. I have often worried about being #1 in search results. My little fun site is #1 on some search engines for some keywords, page 2 on others, etc., etc. But I have often worried about being #1 as folks might think my site is a sponsored result and skip over it. I enjoyed Tubby's link to the Kajabbi flood of '09 and followed it with a search on Google of the Kalkadoon Hotel. The first results (gdaypubs and others) make a stop at the hotel a good prospect. Tubby's weblog is in 7th position. He says the hotel is closed and he links to an article from 20 April 2009 about why it closed. This put a stop to including Kajabbi on my future vacation plans. (I am in regular contact with folks at the U of QLD, so this isn't just an off-the-wall comment.) Apparently, there might be misinformation in the first six results. As has been said on these forums before, #1 isn't always the most up-to-date or the most authoritative. Again, thanks for providing a perspective about search results we all should think about.

Definitely ( ;) ) as we've all seen #1 results that offer us nothing and sometimes sadly I see people tell me the number 1 spot they see on Google and it turns out to be a sponsored ad - many truly believe those are a part of the organic results.

We all go for long tail results but it's usually in oder to occupy the first place spot but there are many factors that point to the fact that being on the second page for a search term is just as glorious as the first page as the first result.

For example the person searching several answers to even several questions and all related to one's particular genre. It could easily end up that the first result is completely forgotten and yours is bookmarked for future use.

It's not fact I suppose but I like to believe people/searchers are getting much smarter and I think the search engines do too. We trust the search engines to provide Us with results related to our queries but its inevitable that the majority of searchers will to learn it's basic common sense mechanics even though they know nothing of web design or SEO.

Common sense in this case: check the second page for answers to your queries just to make sure Wikipedia is right.