As technology becomes more suited to our individual needs so does the way in which we use search engines. Long before the time when Google started to dominate search and even before the period when AltaVista was everyone’s preferred search engine there was a search engine called Archie.

Archie was created in 1990 but its purpose was not to search the World Wide Web that was developed in the same year but rather to scan and index FTP servers to allow easier access to data and so began the life of crawling and indexing. However it would be 3 years later once the internet was starting to make an impact when the 1st actual web robot would crawl the net.

From then to now, a range of changes have been made to search engines, from the 1st one’s that merely crawled page content and title tags to the search engines of today that take into account the number of inbound links a website has to how recently the content was updated, the search engine landscape is fast changing. Even the way in which we input our search queries is changing with new technology being developed to make it easier and quicker to receive the relevant results were looking for.

Without doubt, the king of modern day search has to be Google. With their strength for providing the most relevant and accurate results, Google is firmly in the lead. Yahoo! and Bing are in tough competition with each other for 2nd place, however as they know they cannot beat Google off the top spot on their own there are talks of a merger between the two. Google has managed to secure its lead by developing new technologies and taking a few risks that have paid off. If we look at Google’s search features as compared to Yahoo! or Bing, we can clearly see what the competition is lacking.

To give you an idea of how search is changing with the help of new technology take a look at Google Goggles which allows you via an Android capable mobile phone to capture objects, landmarks, products and then transmit the image to Google which then analyses the exact dimensions and colours of the image to return a set of relevant results as to what the captured image contains. It may seem a little pointless but say you’re a forgetful tourist who’s forgotten their tour book and you’re curious as to what a certain statue or landmark is, then an application like this would be very useful.

It is also worth mentioning about the way in which normal search results are being influenced by the rise in popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which in turn influence the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page). Google has also understood the importance of social media and in turn has released Google Buzz which is a platform designed for users to share media with their friends.

Not all advances in technology are so apparent though, recently Google changed the way it indexed websites and released Google caffeine which now has real time indexing that displays the freshest content available meaning that the end user gets the most accurate, relevant and newest results.

Search is a fast changing and highly competitive market, if we had mentioned a tool like Google Goggles ten years ago not many people would have believed it to be possible. It’s tough to imagine what the future holds for search but with the rise of social media, more personalised results and new ways of inputting queries it certainly does look fascinating.
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Author Bio: Latitude is one of the largest and longest-established digital marketing agencies in the UK, with expertise in SEO, PPC, display advertising, social media, conversion analytics and affiliate marketing. Original article is here.

Category: Internet Marketing/Search Engine Marketing
Keywords: latitude, SEO, PPC, affiliate marketing, display advertising, conversion analytics, social media