DIGITAL
The Evolution of Search: How Google sees the day after tomorrow by Professor Steven Van Belleghem
ou might not know it, but the digital world is reaching a new phase. Ten
Yyears ago companies were being urged to think ' digital first '. Five years ago this switched to thinking ' mobile first ' – which is still the current model for many.
But now it ' s time to start thinking ' artificial intelligence first '. AI is going to change the way we use the internet, particularly the way we search for things. And while this may seem a huge leap forward, for the likes of Google, Facebook and several others, AI is already today ' s reality.
The changing user interface
The evolution of search involves AI, and specifically bots: internet applications that perform an automated task, from ordering food to telling you what the weather will be that day. They’ re often programmed so it seems as if you’ re having a conversation with a real human. The interface of search is set to change due to bots.
A great example of a bot is Amazon ' s Echo, a smart speaker that connects to a virtual voicecontrolled personal assistant, or bot, called Alexa. Since its launch in 2016, over 5.1 million Echoes have been sold in the US alone, and customers are using them in a variety of ways around the home, from creating shopping and todo lists to curating the perfect playlist for a dinner party.
The rapid rise in popularity of Echo is leading to a seismic shift in the search. When you look at the breakdown of what customers are using Echo to do, one in three use it to buy products – from Amazon.
This means that a huge number of households in the US, UK and other countries are buying products on a voicecontrolled device that ' s owned by Amazon. If this increases in popularity and effectiveness, this creates a new world of search.
Google is worried about this, because if people start to buy items through a machine that ' s linked to a specific company – one of its biggest rivals – it means that the way that we search for items is changing. It could alter the way that people find products, and buy products, completely. Google therefore has to meet this challenge head on if it ' s to survive.
Google ' s day after tomorrow The basics of Google ' s search interface hasn’ t really changed since the last century, and when you think about how it works, you realise it ' s actually a suboptimal system for the customer.
Why? Because of the overwhelming numbers of results that are returned whenever you type in a search term. How likely are you to trawl through every single page that Google gives you? But if you don ' t, you could well be missing the perfect item or website that ' s hiding on page 10.
Google now realises that this model of search could be on its way out, and that the future involves all of us having a personal bot inside a device.
This bot will gather information about our likes and dislikes, and then act as a virtual personal assistant to go through search processes for us, presenting us with options that best fit our requirements.
You ' ll make your request, such as“ Hey Google, I need to rent a car in London next month.” Your personal Google bot will start to the talk to the car hire bots, find out the best options based on its knowledge of your needs, and then return the tailored results to you.
While we ' re still a long way off this and the technology isn ' t there yet, you can see some brands are starting to take steps along this path and creating the first applications of bots to optimise the search process.
Disney is about to launch a bot in the guise of Mickey Mouse( how cool is that?) that asks you questions about what type of holiday you want at its parks, and then presents you with the best options.
Outdoor clothing company Northface has developed a search function on its website that leads you through a series of questions to find the item of clothing that ' s the best fit for your needs.
This is Google ' s day after tomorrow. It knows that its existing search model won ' t last another decade, so the race is on to invest in new technology and make sure it doesn ' t get left behind.
Of course, Google still makes £ 100 billion a year from the current model, so it ' s not going to stop offering that, but the company is canny enough to know that it has to invest in the next phase. If not, it will be dead within a decade.
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Prof. Steven Van Belleghem is an expert in customer focus in the digital world. He’ s the author of the award-winning book When Digital Becomes Human, published by Kogan Page, priced £ 19.99.
Follow him on Twitter @ StevenVBe, subscribe to his videos at www. youtube. com / stevenvanbelleghem or visit www. stevenvanbelleghem. com
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