Is This the Future of Search?
Posted On: 2008-03-17
Sometimes it pays to stay well ahead of the game when it comes to search and hanging out on places like SEOmoz, Sphinn and some of the search engine boards doesn't always mean that you're ahead of the game. In fact sometimes those places are way too conservative and blind to interesting developments.
Here's one very interesting new search engine that someone first spotted back in October but none of the 'names' in SEO seemed interested when it was first mentioned. Now though it is beginning to arouse some interest and you guys should be paying attention too.
You'll find this interesting new search engine at searchme.com but be warned, it's still very much in beta so you won't see a lot ... until you play the demo video that you'll find right there on the front page. That video gives quite an in-depth look at the way this new search engine will function so don't be surprised if, like me, you find that you want to play the video through several times.
When you do play that video you're going to find that it's interesting and maybe even a little scary because, if it goes beyond beta, and isn't snapped up by one of the monsters of search, this is going to change the way people search for things online. And it's also going to change the way we build our sites ... especially here in adult.
Why will it change the way people search and the way we build our sites? Well that has a lot to do with Searchme's search engine results pages. You see, they're not going to look like anything we've ever been used to. Instead of seeing lots of text links down the page interspersed by maps and images of video clips - as you might see now in Google's Universal Search - what you get are screen grabs of individual web pages.
Anyone using Searchme can also get to see a description similar to what the other search engines now display but what they will see first and foremost are those screen grabs. Now that means that instead of writing really attractive descriptions that will encourage people to click on those links they get in the search engine results pages they're going to see just how visually appealing ... or unappealing ... individual sites and pages may be.
Perhaps now you see why I described this as “... maybe even a little scary ...” And if you haven't quite woken up yet to what I'm getting at think about what the visual appeal might be for the index page of that free site you've just built. Think about what the visual appeal might be for the scraper sites that you're running and think about how attractive or unattractive those sites might.
Then think about how your sites might compare to those that you are competing against. With Searchme there will be a comparison for people using the search engine to use and you can be sure that the visually appealing sites will be the ones that get the clicks.
When you wake up to that you might start to see how much more work you're going to have to put into every web page you build. Every page will have to be visually appealing or else people aren't going to click on it and you'll lose your traffic to those who are prepared to take the time to make every page on their site look pretty.
I know some guys who currently have some top rankings for important adult keywords and keyword phrases who could be looking at this development with some horror. Some of those pages that rank so well based on well-optimized text and inbound links are about as visually appealing as a wart on the end of your nose. That means that they're not going to attract a whole lot of visitors if other pages that Searchme displays are much more visually appealing.
It's certainly something that we need to be watching and thinking about because, if this goes live and people discover that it's easier to use and just as relevant as Google then it's definitely going to take off. If we're not ready for it then we're going to be in trouble.
I'm not suggesting that we need to rush out and dress up our pages before Searchme's spider arrives ... you would probably be too late for that anyway because Charlotte - the spider - has been around for at least six months and probably longer. What I am suggesting is that you watch the way Searchme develops and be ready to work with it if it does make it out of beta.
Actually, I'd like to see it get out of beta but monetizing something like Searchme could be a problem and if Searchme can't turn a profit then I doubt that it will get very far. However betting against Searchme succeeding may not prove to be a wise move.