The world of online searching is ever changing and is becoming much faster paced and specific. Real time searching has been driven by the increased popularity of social networking and online news viewing, whilst personalised searching is Google’s way of trying to make things more relevant for its users and create a more efficient method of searching. Most of the comments regarding these new methods of searching have been very positive and there is no denying that they will benefit some elements of the online world. On the other hand however, there have been more recent posts and comments which are a more negative towards these methods of searching and are deeming them as more of a hindrance than a help. In terms of search engine optimisation, we have to wonder how much focus we should be putting on these methods.
The most common complaint we are hearing about is personalised searching. The theory behind it does make sense in a lot of ways but at the same time it is a little contradictory in terms of the purpose of search. For example, if a user is searching for something within a search engine then it is more than likely to be because they do not know where to look for the information they need, hence the point of a search engine. If Google is using previous search results as its base for predicting relevant sites, then there could be a danger that the results are too familiar and not in fact what the person was looking for. If the subject is something which a user searches for on a regular basis, then the chances are that they already know their favourite sites and places to look for things, so this all seems a bit pointless.
When we move on to real time searching we see a lot more mixed reviews. Real time searching is ideal if you want to find the most up to date information, press releases or news articles, yet how relevant is it really for other types of factual or informative searches? Take for example somebody is looking for Italian recipes, it does not really matter when the recipe was posted, it is the content which is more important.
The next step in real time searching is the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter results within Google. Whilst in the first instance this seems like a wonderful thing, when you consider it a little more closely, what exactly is the point? If somebody wanted to read results in Twitter then they would search within Twitter, not through Google.
There is obviously a place for real time and personalised searching as it has come on leaps and bounds, and there are obvious benefits for SEO – you can contact the web optimisation experts at SearchEngineOptimisation.co.uk to discuss how they can be tailored for your business – but it is clearly not everybody’s cup of tea. Perhaps a good idea for Google would be to offer the choice of these types of searches as opposed to just automatically generating them, that way everybody is happy.
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Posted by Nick.
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