One of the things we absolutely love about digital marketing is the ever-changing face of things. Being kept on our toes and having to do a complete 180° at least once a month is a challenge we enjoy and thrive on.
One area which has piqued our interest recently is how technology is progressing at a rate that is going to completely annihilate everything we think we know about search over the next few years. We’re going to be fed into a new world of search with tech loaded clothing, tablets and Google following us everywhere we go!
Project Glass
Google’s latest piece of “wow”, Project Glass is a simple piece of technology which goes over one eye like a pair of cool glasses. What this will do is let you interact online from wherever you are through your Google+ account, you can:
- Have chats with people
- Take photos and videos
- Pull up maps and directions
- Check in your location
- Find out where friends are
- Find out where businesses are you’re looking for
It’s like a hands free phone that needs virtually no instruction. See the introductory video below, it’s very cool!
When we first heard about this we were a little unnerved, after all, do we really want to become that much more reliant on our technology? on Google? But then we realised, who am we kidding, we’ll probably be the first in the queue when they go on sale!
Local Search
We're sure that straight away you can see that local search suddenly becomes impacted in a big way, Project Glass is just one example of how technology moving forward is going to drive local search into bigger and better things.
Just think about the big boys and they all have their own versions of local search, Apple Location Services (and they’ve just created their own maps for iOS6), Google Local, Bing Maps, and Yahoo! Maps. With all of these services businesses can get listed so that people can easily find them.
These services are just going to continue to grow, Bing added 165 terabytes of imagery to their maps service just a few days ago!
Google are also beta testing their latest map advancement Google GL which will enhance the graphics and provide 3D imagery.
Google are also in the process of mapping inside of buildings such as museums, shops, malls etc., meaning you can get directions to a certain shop in a mall or a certain section of the bookshop you are in. Pretty cool!
What does this mean for local businesses? Well, you need to be where people are, the results that come up for people are going to depend on where they are and if you are listed. If you have a local presence, make sure you’re listed and located where it matters.
OS Platforms
Apple have started this phenomenon with the iCloud, the ability to do something on one device then pick up another device and continue it seamlessly. Microsoft also have some plans up their sleeve which will be equally if not even more awesome.
Steaming ahead with Windows 8, not only is this the most interactive of their operating systems to date, but it’s also going to be the basis for everything Microsoft moving forward. They will apply the Windows 8 structure to OS8 and to the next Xbox, along with pretty much anything else they come up with.
This will mean they can take the cloud phenomenon to the next level, if you install something on one piece of hardware it will be installed on all of the Windows products you own. You will be able to work on anything, anywhere at any time.
Hardware
Whether it’s the new Nokia 808 phone (pegged to be as good as a low end DSLR), Vizio Ultrabook or the MS Surface, the technological hardware we are using every day is advancing and changing rapidly.
The ability to integrate technology into our clothing is already here, along with the creation of flexible OLED displays and more powerful computing chips such as ARM’s Cortex-A15 Processor (i.e. it’s in the iPhone!) all of these things and more are driving technology towards being more personal, mobile and interactive than ever before (and you thought playing Minority Report with your Kinect was fun)!
Impact On Search
These changes will have an impact on the way we as users search and find companies, in return this will have an impact on the way as digital marketers we work with our clients.
Let’s be honest though, we’re already moving in this direction anyway. Less emphasis on key phrases and search volume and more emphasis on site content, relevancy, creativity, local and social. We’re already doing what we need to, it’s just starting to look very different.