WASSUP RECAP SESSION
DINSDAG 25 MAART
THE SEARCH
LANDSCAPE
GEERT DE LAET
TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST
LUON
1. Game of Channels
Empires expand & collide 1. Game of Channels
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors are
trying to grow their markets.
Google Project Loon
Google aims at bringing
Internet to everyone using
interconnected balloons flying
in the stratosphere.
By doing so, it (of course) also
expands its potential market.
1. Game of Channels
Facebook’s Internet.org
Together with Samsung, Opera, Nokia, Ericsson, QualComm and Mediatek, Facebook too tries to get the
Internet out to the 66% of the global population that’s not connected yet.
1. Game of Channels
affordability
develop technology that decreases
the cost of delivering data to people
worldwide, and helps expand internet
access in underserved communities.
efficiency
invest in tools and software to
improve data compression
capabilities and make data networks
and services run more efficiently
business models
work together to introduce business
models that give people more ways
to go online
Facebook Wi-Fi
Facebook Wi-Fi lets customers check in to participating businesses on Facebook for free Wi-Fi access.
When people check in to your Page, you can share offers and other announcements with them.
1. Game of Channels
Empires expand & collide 1. Game of Channels
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors are
trying to grow their markets.
Empires expand & collide 1. Game of Channels
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors are
trying to grow their markets.
Empires expand & collide 1. Game of Channels
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors are
trying to grow their markets.
Google Authority
Open Graph for Mobile
Google Glass
Vine
Graph Search
hashtags
Foursquare
Mobile SEO
Google Now
First up: Search 1. Game of Channels
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors are
trying to grow their markets.
2. House Google
“Don’t Be Ev i l”
Happy 15th Birthday, Google!
‘Google’ refers to the word
‘Googol’ (1 followed by 100
zeros) and represents their plan
to organise an infinite amount of
information on the web.
The first Google server was
made out of Duplo bricks.
2. House Google
Happy 15th Birthday, Google!
In terms of digital advertising
revenu, mobile advertising
market share and browser
market share, Google is the
clear front-runner.
2. House Google
Happy 15th Birthday, Google!
Google also takes first position
for number of monthly
searches, number of search
engine users and smartphone
OS market share.
The Google Maps smartphone
app is one of the most popular
apps.
2. House Google
Google Now: when content starts searching for you
‘Google Now’ is Google’s
“search assistant,” offering
“predictive” or “anticipatory”
search by combining dynamic
contextual information with
structured data.
2. House Google
click next for video
Google Now: when content starts searching for you
‘Google Now’ is Google’s
“search assistant,” offering
“predictive” or “anticipatory”
search by combining dynamic
contextual information with
structured data.
2. House Google
Conversational Search
With ‘Conversational Search’,
Google tries to understand
search intent through natural
language processing and
semantics, and is able to start a
conversation around it.
2. House Google
Meet the Hummingbird 2. House Google
The Google Hummingbird
update was the biggest
overhaul of the search
algorithm in over 10 years,
affecting 90% of search
queries.
With more complex queries,
the algorithm can better
understand concept versus
words as well as relation-
ships between concepts.
- Amit Singhal, Google
“
Meet the Hummingbird 2. House Google
different devices new ways of searching
(longer queries, conversational, …) The Google Hummingbird
update was the biggest
overhaul of the search
algorithm in over 10 years,
affecting 90% of search
queries.
With more complex queries,
the algorithm can better
understand concept versus
words as well as relation-
ships between concepts.
- Amit Singhal, Google
“
+
what’s the user’s intent? what is his need?
extract query concepts and relationships
Knowledge
Graph synonyms
site
entities
related
entities
personali-
sation:
social, location,
time, device,
history, …
authority/
authorship
links to answers on SERP answers on SERP
…
Meet the Hummingbird: things vs. strings
Semantic search allows Google
to determinate the meaning
behind queries.
For this to work, Google needs
to shift from comparing strings
to recognizing things and the
relationships between them.
2. House Google
Strings
• “gdp of Belgium”
• “What’s the gdp of Belgium”
• “Belgium gross domestic product”
• “gdp of Kingdom of Belgium”
• …
GDP
Belgium
Things
Kingdom
of
Belgium
Gross
Domestic
Product
Meet the Hummingbird: things vs. strings
Semantic search allows Google
to determinate the meaning
behind queries.
For this to work, Google needs
to shift from comparing strings
to recognizing things and the
relationships between them.
2. House Google
Strings
• “gdp of Belgium”
• “What’s the gdp of Belgium”
• “Belgium gross domestic product”
• “gdp of Kingdom of Belgium”
• …
GDP
Belgium
Things
Kingdom
of
Belgium
Gross
Domestic
Product
The diminishing role of search keywords
Google’s growing understan-
ding of query intent and
concepts leads to a diminishing
focus on keywords.
Over the years, the ratio of
‘implicit’ (= location, social, …)
versus ‘explicit’ (= keyword)
data used by Google also
shifted in favor of more implicit
data.
2. House Google
Who is the president of the
United States?
Who is his wife?
The diminishing role of search keywords
In 2011, Google added SSL
encryption for signed-in search
users, resulting in keyword data
showing up in Google Analytics
as ‘(not provided)’.
This protection is now also
being rolled out to users who
are not signed in.
2. House Google
So now what?
Throughout the years, keyword
data has been used by
marketers for a number of
different purposes.
2. House Google
1. finding opportunities to improve a page's performance or its
ranking.
2. understanding how your searchers perceive your brand and
your content.
3. uncovering keyword opportunities
So now what? | 1. Improve page performance
Throughout the years, keyword
data has been used by
marketers for a number of
different purposes.
1. finding opportunities to
improve a page's
performance or its ranking.
- combine rank-tracking data
with pages receiving search
visits
- use Google Webmaster
Tools and AdWords data
2. House Google
So now what? | 2. Understanding brand perception
Throughout the years, keyword
data has been used by
marketers for a number of
different purposes.
2. Understanding how your
searchers perceive your
brand and your content.
What are users searching for
that's leading them to my site?
2. House Google
So now what? | 3. Keyword opportunities
Throughout the years, keyword
data has been used by
marketers for a number of
different purposes.
3. Uncovering keyword
opportunities
What keywords to target and
how to decide if they drive
traffic already?
2. House Google
So now what? | From keywords to concepts
Even when you purchase
keywords through AdWords,
Google suggests keywords to
you in tightly grouped themes
and ideas. In fact, they do
everything they can to
discourage you from bidding on
individual keywords.
2. House Google
Where Google Search meets social: Google+
The MOZ and SearchMetrics
2013 Search Engine Ranking
Factors overviews show a big
correlation between rankings
and social signals.
2. House Google
“ Correlation is not causation.
But it shure is a hint.
- Edward Tufte
Google +1 correlation Google +1 correlation
Facebook shares, likes comments Facebook shares
0.40
0.34
0.30
0.27 1. Posts on Google+ are crawled and indexed almost immediately
2. Google+ posts pass link juice to your site
3. Being shared (by creating great content) helps your ranking
Where Google Search meets social: Authority
In December 2013, Matt Cutts –
head of search spam at Google-
confirmed that Google has
applied a 15% reduction in the
amount of rich snippets
displayed in the search results.
With this, Google is cleaning
out the closet to eliminate low-
authority results.
2. House Google
Paid listings for the mobile era
AdWords Enhanced
campaigns let you manage
complex targeting, bidding, and
ads for different platforms like
mobile and computers all
within the same campaign.
Enhanced Campaigns became
mandatory on the 22nd of July
2013.
2. House Google
click next for video
3. House Bing
“Bi ng it on”
The Bing offer
Just like Google, Bing too is
making the switch from
keywords to concepts
(‘entities’).
Much of the technical solutions
offered by Google Search, are
in fact also available in
Microsoft Bing.
3. House Bing
The way forward?
The zillion dollar question for
Microsoft: How to capture
market share from a competitor
whose very brand (“Google”)
has become synonymous with
the act of searching online?
3. House Bing
Bing (2,66%)
Search engine market share, Belgium
OUT-FEATURE ATTACK DEVELOP BRAND
The way forward?
The zillion dollar question for
Microsoft: How to capture
market share from a competitor
whose very brand (“Google”)
has become synonymous with
the act of searching online?
3. House Bing
Bing (2,66%)
Search engine market share, Belgium
The way forward?
But don’t count out Microsoft
just yet!
Bing is currently the engine
behind a lot of successful
platforms.
3. House Bing
Bing (9,63%)
Search engine market share, US
4. House Facebook
“BE Connect ed”
Graph Search
Facebook Graph Search allows
users to conduct complex
queries about people, places,
photos and interests using
natural language.
Graph Search can already be
used by switching your
language to english (US).
4. House Facebook
click next for video
Graph Search
Facebook Graph Search allows
users to conduct complex
queries about people, places,
photos and interests using
natural language.
Graph Search can already be
used by switching your
language to english (US).
4. House Facebook
Graph Search for marketers
Marketers should make sure
they can be found by updating
the ‘about’ section and –in case
of local places- adding address
details.
Graph search can also assist
marketers in getting to know
their audience.
4. House Facebook
Facebook #hashtags
In June 2013, Facebook
announced support for search-
able hashtags.
The biggest difference with
Twitter is that most posts on
Facebook are however not
public.
4. House Facebook
“ During primetime television
alone, there are between 88
and 100 million Americans
engaged on Facebook —
roughly a Super Bowl-sized
audience every single night
5. House Pinterest?
“How Pi nt erest i ng”
The rise of visual search
In January 2014, Pinterest
acquired VisualGraph, a two-
man (ex-Googlers) company
specialised in advanced image
recognition:
Face detection & recognition
Product recommendation,
similar products
Visual search
Pornography filtering
5. House Pinterest?
The rise of visual search
ASAP54 is a mobile app that
recognizes fashion items – a
‘Shazam for fashion’.
5. House Pinterest?
click next for video
6. Key Take-Aways
Key Take-Aways 6. Key Take-Aways
The social, mobile and search
worlds are colliding.
At the same time, all actors
are trying to grow their
markets.
1
With Google Now,
conversational search and
Google Hummingbird, the
search landscape is fully
entering the semantics
space.
This has a big impact for
traditional, keyword-centric,
SEO.
2
While Bing is looking for a
way to steal Google market
share, Facebook and even
Pinterest are slowly entering
the search market.
3
WASSUP RECAP SESSION
DINSDAG 25 MAART
THE END
GEERT DE LAET
TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST
LUON
Geert De Laet
Technology evangelist
Twitter: @geertdelaet