Social Media and Search in the Future???

Here I sit, on a cool overcast morning in Shrewsbury, England on Friday 23rd March 2012. I am Rob Morgan and I spend far too much time thinking about the future of everything, especially the Internet. There are great minds who have, and who are shaping the web. However, I can't help trying to decipher it all out myself before some Google hotshot beats me to it, or comes up with something far better.

I am always thinking to myself, why didn't I think of a social networking site back in say 2004....I mean it was not that long ago, was it? When it comes to fruition and turns out to be hugely successful it all makes sense. However, hindsight is a great thing. Ok so I can't go back in time with my hindsight and make my own social media website. What I can do is try and predict the next key developments with the Internet. So this is exactly what I intend to do.

I want to base my assumptions on the concept of search and the role social media will play in this.

I am very interested and excited by Google’s Knowledge Graph, the idea that they are working out ways to make search more intelligent, and relevant to the specific user. It did occur to me however, to what extend will they be adding this human touch, albeit artificial intelligence? Let’s leave Google and take a look at social media for one moment. Sites such as Facebook have become so successful as they exploit the human need for affiliation and belonging, and of course communication. Social media has given what mankind has longed for generations - a loud voice which can help form opinions. I see the role of social networking sites as being instrumental in the development of the Internet, specifically the way people look for information....the way people use search.

Around 80% of searches performed on Google are informational based.

The way I see the future of the Internet, in terms of search at least, is that there could be a merging (not in the business sense) of social media platforms and search engines in terms of usage. With Google Knowledge Graph it is clear that Google are trying to create human like intelligence with their searches. But why not involve things which are, and always will be far superior to artificial intelligence - these things being humans!

Before we get too deep, I have no real idea technically how to implement these ideas, they are just the sketches and ramblings from my own mind! But hear me out....I would like to see in a few years someone being able to conduct a search either by siri, voice or typing, and you have a choice depending on the nature of the search query to select the method of reply.

At the moment, when you search on Google you are returned with relevant web pages. We do have Siri from Apple and similar which is good, but still limited. If you are looking for a review of a business or product, then you will no doubt come across excellent review websites. However, it’s all a bit un-interactive and generalised. At the moment if you want a review on a specific business you can trawl the review sites, or post a question on Twitter or Facebook and hope for the best. But it all takes time. What we need is instant human to human engagement.

Now, imagine if you could perform a search for a specific business, hotel, restaurant, or product, and get instant opinions and comments from people, all over the world who have happened to have been there recently, or who have just purchased the product in question? This is exactly what review sites are all about, but they are missing the concept of instant engagement, where a dialogue and trust can instantly be formed. Will these dialogues make up a massively long forum posting? I don’t know, maybe, or maybe not...I am not sure.

I would imagine when someone checks-in (as in Facebook check in) to a location, they will in the future, be given the opportunity to be an opinion-former for the business – an ambassador if you will. Not all will want this hassle, which is why it will be an opt in set up I guess. Also I see check-ins will go one step further, with something similar when you buy a specific item, for this I will call it a "check-out"....When you buy an item you will be able to "check-out" as in tell the world what you have just bought...In the same way you will be able to “check-in” to a bar.

Imagine using your barcode reader on your iPhone to tell the world what you have just purchased?

“6,000,000 people have just checked-out the latest iPhone 7....see what they are saying in your area”

Imagine being able to get an instant check on that nice Italian restaurant you have seen across the road, and to then engage with someone who is actually eating there, who tells you the service is really slow this evening....

Are you still following me?

Ok, so that is my brain dump of what the future of Internet search in my mind could hold. It is not about reinventing the wheel, just understanding the nature of how social media will be instrumental in developing human lead, instant engagement search of the future.

 

Hello , The one thing that I see for the future is that the telephone will be a live video or live screening of your family members , calling you. (like using a webcam)

Respectfully
David Jackson

 

umm.. you can already do all of the things you mention, all the techs are available, well used, and several years old - the only place you came near to "future" is when you mentioned the knowledge graph, but even that has been created and stands at several billion bits of interconnected information thus far (c.f. linked data / semantic web).

the convergence of "Internet of Things" with "Linked Data" and "Augmented Reality" and developed with mobile devices in mind is the next jump in internet tech that's coming up.

 

Well thought out buddy, great article.

 

Thanks for sharing your insights.Both search engine like Google and social media has great prospect in future indeed.

 

No need to worry about SEO and search future. because future is bright.

 

Instant reviews for product, now that's an awesome feature. A user instantly gets to know the review of any product(say smartphone) from a live user, WOW. Hope we can see that in the near future.

Cheers!

 

The future for search engines and social network will be very bright I think because more and more people are using the internet and it will be their daily routine to go and search any question that they have or update their social network status.

 

I hope it does evolve into something completely new! That just means more opportunities to take advantage of.