Live Blog- State of Search Panel SES NYC

March 23rd, 2010 by John Lynch

Summary from SES Website:

Join us for an illuminating discussion as we peek into the next generation of digital marketing and predict what search might look like in the following five to ten years. What should be on your search radar for 2010 and beyond? Does the key to the future of search lie in personalization? Do social networks herald the end of search? Certain industry pundits have even been heard to say that SEO is dead. The future is coming. Are you ready for it?

Moderator:
Graham Mudd, Vice President, Search & Media, comScore, Inc.
Speakers:
Stefan Weitz, Director, Bing
Brett Tabke, CEO, WebmasterWorld.com
Robert Murray, CEO, iProspect
Larry Cornett, VP, Consumer Products, Yahoo! Search

10:38- Waiting for the first panel to begin at SES New York

10:45- GM introduces the panel…

Steven Weitz up first-

-We know that a tweet has a geo log. tremendous amount of information captured.
-engines blind to so many booking sites like opentable.com. engines should be able to understand services on web and stitch them together in real-time.
-Lists all twiiter tools very quickly… not going to try
-Amazing canvas of objects out there.
“We didn’t have an engine in 2010″, umm yes you did. It was called MSN!
“our vision of search is to make sure we can deliver knowledge”- focus on ambiguous 2-3 word query and understand what they are really looking for:

who, where, others, semantic, elves

task derivation- purchase, install sell, set fire to, impress friends

point is to take content, services, media, real time

“Intent should drive user experience. More than just text”

Larry takes the podium-
Larry Cornett, VP Consumer Products Yahoo! Search

“Seeing much more diversity. Much more than just web and text.”

“How do you take all the information and condense it into the answer?”
“Going to use search data to inspire”
“If we know who you are and connected to, can we give you something before you even stop to ask?”

3 Areas of Focus

1. Find things faster

search assist- yahoo’s version of autocomplete. embedded in universal header. stock quotes right in layer (pretty slick).

Shows a SERP- Yikes, look at all the ads. not the best display to prove a point.

“95% of queries are about a thing”
“Trying to create a different type of web.”

Trying to connect the different assets with search. Search for Avatar produces “Related People” on left (very cool).

“Starts to make search feel a bit more like a media experience.”

Shows new IPhone app. Draw with your finger along a geographic area and it shows all the restaurants within that area.

Drills down by neighborhood for NYC-based searches.

Discussion

Weitz- indicates they use end user data to understand and serve results for keywords such as “boston flights.” Goal of search should not be to facilitate exploration, but to provide answers.
Murray- it’s all about confidence and understanding the intent
Cornett- Future is clear, more aggressively providing answers right on the PAGE
Murray- No longer about meta data. Won’t win with a single website anymore. Need to have a holistic approach.

Cornett- Who’s to say you can’t someday you can’t file your 1040 right on the SERP?

Mod: What about from the paid side of the page?

Weitz: Opportunities for additional ad types open up. Presentation layer may change away from set of links. Profound opportunity.

Tabke: Ranking reports are dead.

Weitz: You can accomplish a tremendous amount of personalization with a tremendously few number of variables, such as location. Big issue, people go to search to sometimes explore, the idea of over-personalization might prevent people from coming back.

Cornett: We’ve signed deals with Facebook and Twitter. We don’t just blast raw tweets. Gibe people a taste of something that’s fresh and unique.

Tabke: Consulting for top 50 company and they had 5 million FB fans in 5 weeks… had no idea what to do with them.

Murray: if the single webpage no longer reigns supreme. You’re website is nothing more than a data aggregation site. Why do you have to house that on your own website? You can create a youtube channel, then your website becomes self fulfilled.

Tabke: Building a framework for the next Twitter, whether it Foresquared or something else.

Question: By providing thorough content on the search page, are we hurting websites?
Cornett: it might be a loss leader. this is a decent answer, and then they click through.
Weitz: we have agreements with providers to display answers. for recipes, we leverage data and offer snippets so you’re getting a very qualified click.

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