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Why Google Will Lose Dominance. Part I posted on Monday, 03 December 2007

A growing desire for more personalization, the widening need for more levels of information and the failure of general search engines to deliver on business-related searches is causing users to change their search habits. And as a result, second-generation search engines are gaining importance in the market.

With increased effectiveness and specificity, new search engines are challenging established search aristocracy.

By Jason Prescott

Make it Personal
A recent Personalization Survey (Choice Stream 2006) shows that consumers are willing to sacrifice privacy for personalized content.

This annual survey provides insight into current consumer preferences, showing an increasingly favorable trend toward personalization since 2005. Key findings in 2006 indicate that interest in personalization is strong, as 79 percent of consumers surveyed showed a preference for receiving personalized content.

The number of consumers willing to trade off privacy for personalization has also increased from 2005 to 2006, with 57 percent of consumers willing to provide personal demographic information in exchange for personalized content in 2006. This is a significant increase (24 percent) compared to the 2005 result of 46 percent willing to trade privacy for personalization.

Searching my way
People have diverse search needs that can range from very specific purchase behavior to informational searching on topics such as health or leisure. The internet audience is varied, as well, ranging from GenYers flocking to MySpace, to Baby Boomers seeking simple pleasures and the fountain of youth.

Stratification web audiences results in many different ways of searching, spawning a new generation of search engines. This has implications for marketers, as targeting becomes the latest buzz word in search and every other online marketing channel.

General Search
Many people find that general search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live are not the be-all and end-all for their web searches. That's because general search engines are so cluttered with all the information that's fit to index that many queries bring irrelevant results.

Research has revealed a search failure rate of 31.9 percent on general search engines among business users (Outsell 2006). Another study by Convera (2006) reveals that professionals in every industry can't find vital, work-related information on major search engines.

Part of the problem is that general search engines were not designed as business tools. Beyond that, most business executives are not trained to search the web. As a result, only four out of 10 professionals are satisfied with general search engines. Convera's survey of business executives reports the following-- not very good news for Google and Yahoo:

• 11 percent always found what they were looking for on the first attempt.
• 43 percent always found what they were looking for after several attempts.
• 21 percent felt their queries were always understood.

Results like those of Outsell and Convera encourage the continued localization and verticalization of search. In fact, we are seeing a whole new generation of search engines, each with a mission to personalize search based on idiosyncratic user needs.

About the Author: Jason A. Prescott is CEO of JP Communications, a San Marcos-based network of wholesale vertical search communities offering search, auctions, advertising networks and search marketing. Prescott co-launched four successful B2B vertical search engines – TopTenWholesale.com, Wholezilla.com, OffPriceNetwork.com, WholesaleU.com – to meet specialized needs of apparel and merchandise wholesalers/retailers. Active in the industry, Jason is a member of the High Tech Marketing Association. He has also presented to Search Engine Strategies and San Diego Software Council. Jason can be reached at Jason@toptenwholesale.com .

Posted by John Lincoln