Is Search Engine Evolution Information Control?
December 27, 2011
A great deal of time and money goes into understanding the relationship between consumer and search engine. All the top search engines clamor to make the search process easier and easier almost to the point of it becoming a joke. With tongue in cheek Paul Burani, of Search Engine Watch, begins his article, One-Word Searches: Search Engines Doing More With Less. The article tries to deconstruct the convoluted process between a consumer wanting to search for something and clicking on a result that their chosen search engine spits out.
The factual basis to his ramblings is as follows:
There’s a curious trend going on behind the scenes, one that hasn’t received a whole lot of publicity: the growing prominence of one-word search queries. We’re seeing one-word search queries’ share of total search activity growing fast: from 20.3 percent of all search engine queries in January 2009 to 27.2 percent in October 2011, according to Hitwise.
Within the article are many possible reasons for the jump in one word queries. They range from geographic targeting of search users to the effects of Google Instant. What all of his surmising does not account for is how search has shaped us. Rather than look at what motivates people when searching, he should be examining how the outcome affects the behavior.
SurfRay’s Ontolica provides a solution to one word searches. The system displays suggestions and makes it easy for the user of Ontolica to explore processed content. In the consumer sector, one word queries may be “good enough.” In the enterprise, SurfRay’s tools make one word search deliver highly relevant, actionable information. To learn more about Ontolica, navigate to www.surfray.com.
Catherine Lamsfuss, December 20, 2011
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Thanks for reading my article! Within those ramblings was the revelation that there is a clear correlation between search query length and conversion potential — i.e. the answer to your question, how the outcome affects the behavior. For a community like SearchEngineWatch.com, we look at the motivation of searchers because, in fact, without searchers there is no such thing as search marketing.