Search without Search: The Saga Continues
March 31, 2011
I am not sure what third rate college I attended but in one of them I had to read the Elder Edda. No Cliff Notes for that puppy. Although the details have been lost to me, I do recall that certain themes kept popping up. After reading “In Schmidt’s Vision, Google Will Search before You Even Ask,” it was an Elder Edda moment.
iPad apps search without search. I fired up Pulse on the train from Manhattan, capital of the new third world, and saw information of interest to me. No search required, thank you. My deeply flawed BlackBerry showed me where I was on the zoo ride branded as Amtrak. Again: no search required. Google, if the write up is accurate, is recycling the “search without search” mantra as it prepares to undergo a sixth grade type of scrutiny for its privacy behavior.
Here’s the snippet in the write up that caught my attention:
Autonomous search would take your past experiences, likes and dislikes and use them, along with geolocation information, to give you information about things that might interest you wherever you might be.
Okay.
Is automatic ubiquitous search good for me? Maybe. Is it good for Google ad revenues? I think so. An advertiser bids on a word. Google runs searches without search, sticks them in front of me, and on my mobile or other computing device I click away. Each click is good for Google. Is the click good for the advertiser? I think that some advertisers will be happy. I think other advertisers may wonder what the heck happened to their money. As people move away from Web sites to apps, to consider this example, the click may not have the same payoff as in the good old days of desktop computers. Do advertisers offer mobile friendly landing pages? Some do. Some don’t. If I click on an ad, I expect an offer that matches my device. If not, I don’t linger. I disappear along with the advertiser’s money.
Google wants search without search. As I said, the Elder Eddas again.
Stephen E Arnold, March 31, 2011
Freebie
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