Google's greatness lies in its ability to continuously get smarter and better. It doesn't hurt to have all the money and most of the talent in the world to apply to this task. Yet the ethos of consistent testing and tinkering toward improving search results is driven by the culture as much as the desire to outpace or anticipate competitors.
Every so often, we mortals get a glimpse into what they're up and what they might do next. I'm indebted to Jann Kanellis, Brad Gosse and Josh Titsworth for cueing me about these 5 developments.
Different Results on Different Computers. Last December, Google began tracking search results by machine address. That means if you search the same term on your work computer and your home computer, its possible to get different results. This is probably more likely if the search has a local angle, which might be a clue about Google's future direction and their desire to improve penetration and ad sales among local ands small businesses. It also might reflect their understanding of what you've searched for on that particular machine. Remember they watch what you type in and what you click on to track and study this stuff.
As it is Google serves up local results if you enter a city, state, region, postal or zip code in the search bar. Since they know your location from either your IP or machine address, they can automate the process of including the nearest products, retailers or services. And while it's not 100% accurate, it is regularly getting better.
Different Results at Different Times. Google changed the search algorithm and has instituted random A/B testing. So it's not unusual to search the same term at different times and find yourself getting different results because you've been silently assigned to either the control of the test group. You can get much more technical information about this here. But this hints at an effort to segment audiences and identify times, topics, geographies, demographies and affinities for more discrete results.
More Real-Time Results. To counter the influence of Twitter, Google has struck deals with an array of social networks to include posts, tweets and updates in search results. Google doesn't display these randomly but instead has developed its own process for weighting based on numbers, frequency, authority and intensity of sentiment. We'd all like to get a look at the assumptions and the data sets underlying this effort because the ability to track not only what's going on but what people are feeling and doing right now can be a very powerful insight for marketers and politicians.
More Pictures. Google knows how many people are looking at still and moving images online. After all the own YouTube and are looking for better ways to drive traffic and increase ad sales and the monetization of video content. Notice that photos and videos are steadily creeping into your search results pages. Notice also whose videos get served higher up on the page.
More "Related Searches." Google knows that the math doesn't always work. So to set your expectations and reduce the disappointment you might feel when they get it wrong, they are serving up additional phrases; usually variations on what you searched for listed under a header that reads "Searches related to …." This hedges your bets and theirs and signals a desire to try their best to get it right. In many cases it's useful because consumers often don't know how to phrase an effective search request.
Some of these changes will up-end your existing SEO tactics and some will challenge your PPC tactics. But carefully watching and handicapping Google is something every marketer will have to do into the foreseeable future.
