1) Search has evolved from simply finding information online to being an integral part of many apps and services like Yelp and Siri. 2) Search engines like Google index the words and metadata on webpages to organize information and return relevant results, but still struggle with ambiguity in queries. 3) The future of search includes more personalized, location-based, real-time social and mobile search across different media and apps, with a goal of universal search across fragmented digital experiences.

1. WHAT IS SEARCH?
It’s more than a web destination and a few
words plugged in a box
Search has become embedded in everything
from apps like Yelp and Foursquare to Siri
Search is a program that organizes the
world’s information/data and returns a list
of results based on relevance to queries
(Hopefully!)

2. But what is search really?
Technically speaking, Search is actually
Database Keyword Technology
And the other half (and most important part)
of Search…is being Found!

3. SEARCH PREHISTORY

4. The olden days:
BEFORE GOOGLE
• CIRCA 1990-1995

5. WHAT’S CHANGED?
WE USED TO USE SEARCH ENGINES TO LOOK
FOR INFORMATION
NOW WE USE SEARCH TO FIND US!
WHAT WAS ONCE TRANSACTIONAL NOW
SEEMS AN EXTENSION OF OURSELVES

6. THEN VS. NOW
CONSIDER FINDING THE CURRENT TIME IN AUSTRALIA:
ONCE IT WOULD HAVE REQUIRED THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
1) KNOWING CURRENT TIME WHERE YOU ARE
2) SEARCHING FOR A REPUTABLE APPLICATION THAT
TRANSLATED TIME ZONES
3) ENTERING YOUR LOCATION AND CHOOSING AUSTRALIA
FROM A SEPARATE MENU
NOW ON GOOGLE, YOU CAN SIMPLY TYPE OR SPEAK AND
GOOGLE DOES THE WORK AND UNDERSTANDS WHAT YOU
WANT
+ =

7. IT’S STILL NOT A PERFECT
SCIENCE
AMBIGUITY IS THE ENEMY!
“HOW BIG?” “ARE YOU LOOKING FOR LENGTH OR
WIDTH?”
“SHOW ME THE MONEY” VS. “SHOW ME AN IMAGE
OF A DAHLIA”
IT’S LIKE GOING TO THE DOCTOR AND
SAYING, “GUESS WHERE IT HURTS?”
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE:
STRINGS ARE NOW “THINGS”
GOOGLE IS INDEXING THINGS VS. WORDS

8. ENTER THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH
CREATED IN 2005 AS DATABASE OF WORLD’S
MOST USEFUL INFORMATION BY METAWEB
500 MILLION THINGS LISTED
ALSO REPRESENTS CONNECTIONS BETWEEN
THINGS CALLED “EDGES”
TAJ MAHAL=BUILDING=MUSICIAN=BEER
=RESTAURANT=CASINO, ETC.
THE GOAL IS ANSWERS NOT LINKS

9. HYPERNYMS!
WORDS THAT MEAN THE SAME THING AS A
MORE SPECIFIC USAGE
“JAGUAR” HAS 26 DIFFERENT MEANINGS:
THE ANIMAL, THE MAC OS, A POPULAR SOUTH
AMERICAN ARTIST, ETC.
THE KNOWLEDGE GRAPH IS ATTEMPTING TO
CHANGE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN
INTENT

10. HOW GOOGLE SEARCH WORKS:
#1 SPIDER DISPATCH
• ROBOT PROGRAMS SCAN NEW AND UPDATED
PAGES AND INDEX EVERY WORD (EXCEPT
“A”, “AN”, “THE”)
• GOOGLEBOTS FOLLOW LINKS FROM PAGE TO
PAGE MAKING ITS INDEX MORE
COMPREHENSIVE

11. #2 INDEXING
KEYWORDS PLUS:
• METADATA INFORMATION ON WHETHER
KEYWORDS CAPITALIZED
• FONT SIZE
• WHERE FOUND ON PAGE
(HEADERS, TITLE, SUBTITLE)
ALL ARE USED TO RANK IMPORTANCE OF
A WEB PAGE

12. #3 RANKING
UNIQUE FEATURE OF GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM IS
PAGERANK
RATES PAGE’S IMPORTANCE BASED ON:
• NUMBER AND REPUTATION OF LINKS THAT
POINTED TO THEM
• TRAFFIC
• HOW OFTEN KEYWORDS APPEAR
• FRESHNESS OF PAGE AND SITES THAT LINK TO IT

13. #4 DEFINITION
GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM USES OVER 200
SIGNALS TO REFINE A SEARCH QUERY
INCLUDING:
• WEB SITE’S PAGERANK
• SEARCHER’S GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
• WHICH LINKS A USER USUALLY CLICKS
• HOW THEY MODIFY SEARCH QUERIES
WHEN THEY ARE UNSATISFIED
• SEARCH HISTORY

14. 3 FURTHER SEARCHES
BING
• RELATED SEARCHES APPEAR IN THE RIGHT-
HAND COLUMN
• VERY REFINED IMAGE SEARCH
• INTEGRATES FARECAST GIVES BEST FARES
• CANT SEARCH FOR SPECIFIC DATES
• CANT FILL IN GAPS IF YOU GET SEARCH TERM
PARTY WRONG

15. YAHOO!
• INTEGRATES RESULTS WITH ORIGINAL
CONTENT, AUDIO, VIDEO, IMAGES
• CAN PERSONALIZE PAGE TO MAKE THE MOST
RELEVANT RESULT TO YOU APPEAR FIRST
• USER INTENTION ISSUE—OFTEN GIVES LINKS
TO IRRELEVANT SITES WHILE GOOGLE GIVES
SHOW-TIMES IN YOUR CITY

16. YANDEX
YANDEX IS MARKET LEADER AND #1 WEB SITE IN
RUSSIA
• LOCALIZATION IS STRENGTH FOR RUSSIAN
RESULTS WHEREAS GOOGLE FOCUSES
BROADLY ON COUNTRIES
• FAR FEWER SERVERS/DATA CENTERS THAN
GOOGLE & CANNOT INDEX ENGLISH
LANGUAGE PAGES AS FAST AS GOOGLEBOT

17. BAIDU
• 78% MARKET SHARE IN CHINA VS. GOOGLE’S
18%
• RESULTS CENSORED BY CHINESE
GOVERNMENT
• STILL BEST OF THE CHINESE DOTCOMS AND #5
RANKED WORLD WEB SITE

18. THE FUTURE: SEARCH
EVERYWHERE
• What is TIVO but TV Search?
• What is iTunes but Music
Search
• Local and Personal

19. THE FUTURE NOW: KEY TRENDS
TO WATCH
• LONGTAIL KEYWORDS RULE
• GEOLOCATION IS HERE
• AUTHCODES ARE STEALTH
• CLICKSTREAMS MAKE SEARCH THE NEW
INTERFACE
• THE SEMANTIC WEB

20. THE FUTURE NOW:
SEARCH IS SOCIAL
• SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCH—
TRUE FREQUENCY MARKETING VS.
TRADITIONAL PAGE RANKING
• REAL-TIME POSTING
• COMMUNITY-BASED SEARCH
(MOG, SPOTIFY)
• SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE AND REPORTING
(RELISHMIX.COM)

21. THE FUTURE NOW
• HUMAN CURATED SEARCH FROM
BOTTOM UP NOT TOP DOWN
(BLEKKO)
• OWNED VS. EARNED VIEWS
• MOBILE SEARCH (BOOPSIE)

22. THE FUTURE NOW
• SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
• SEGMENTED SEARCH ENGINES
(PRODUCT SEARCH—
DECIDE.COM)
• CONTEXTUAL SEARCH
(ADWORDS)

23. “THE FUTURE OF SEARCH
IS VERBS”
WHAT DOES BILL GATES MEAN BY
THIS?
MAYBE IT’S THAT WE WANT TO
SEARCH TO DO THINGS, AND NOT JUST
SUGGEST THINGS TO US

24. THE FAR FRONTIER
IS “UNIVERSAL SEARCH”
WE THOUGHT THAT WHEN THE WEB UNIVERSE
WAS COMPLETE THE ENTIRE WEB WOULD BE
SEARCHABLE:
WITH DIGITAL LIVES FRACTURED—IN APPS, WALLED
GARDENS LIKE FACEBOOK, CLUNKY INTERFACES—
REUNITING IN ONE UMBRELLA PLATFORM THAT IS
SEARCHABLE IS LARGEST PROBLEM TODAY
(ACCORDING TO JOHN BATELLE, AUTHOR, THE SEARCH)