In November 2007 I was looking into universal search (aka blended search) and how it may influence or impact on SEO.
After a frenzy of using Google’s SearchMash my interest eventually waned and I moved on to SearchWiki… and it looks like Google felt the same. I looked for SearchMash today to find that in November 2008 it was killed off. As I’m a bit late on the trail it has given me the opportunity to review my comments from 2 years ago and see if they were any good as predictions (www.enquiroresearch.com also produced a “Search Engine Results: 2010″ paper that explored what search engines may look like in the future).
With the launch of SearchWiki we now have personalised universal search- as predicted, but what else is there yet to come to fruition? Will mobile search become so integrated with “regular” search that every device will inform your search results based on geo-location data? Will personalized search become ubiquitous to the degree that “regular” search vanishes?
More interestingly will there remain a baseline search environment or tool that is free from the influences of location or recorded search preferences? For me that will be the benchmark of search evolution- offering choice in How you search, rather than simply What you search.
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