News from State of Search: VOTE! and new features

Vote for your favorite conference: We are looking for what was the best conference of 2010. Nominations are now open on the website. Go and vote for your favorites! We will this month also be asking you to vote for the best blogpost of State of Search so stay tuned for that too!
Advertise on the website: are you interested in advertising on the site? Get in touch with us and learn all the possibilities.
Changes to the website:
We are always working on improving the website. We've again added some interesting features for you:
More news on State of Search:  As you may have noticed in the past months we have been covering what has been going on in the world of search and social more with not just analysis, but also with news. You can find all that in our special news section. Be aware that some news items do NOT show up on the homepage. But you can always see the latest news in the sidebar!
Tip us: Since we are always on the look out for new stuff we are happy when you help us out. Do you have a tip? Seen something interesting we should cover? Tip us!
Updated special event pages: State of Search is THE place to be when it comes to coverage of events. We have again some new events for you. And we've renewed our special event pages so you can find everything about the events we are at even more easy.

Article: 2010 the year search met some new friends

By Jeroen van Eck

It’s December again. And what would a newsletter in December be without a little look back on the year?  In 2010 the world of search was introduced to some new friends (and enemies). I’d like to introduce them to you backed up with relevant articles from State of Search.

Search meets social

Social was without a doubt the hottest topic on the internet in 2010. The integration of social into search has been a slow development however. Search engines have been struggling with the shift from web pages to status updates as the backbone of the web. Links don’t spread through webpages anymore, but through tweets, status updates and likes. This should mean that search engines should use social signals to rank their results. The first official confirmation of this integration, and how it was used, came only just this month.
The Facebook/Bing partnership was the first real integration of social elements in the search results of search engine. Google is only making small steps with the integration of social in the search results, layer by layer. For 2011 be prepared for more influence of social into search! Will it be a match made in heaven?

Search meets realtime

Not only the social aspect of ranking search results is a result from the social web. The social web has made information availability so much faster. This information had to be found, indexed and presented to the users much faster than web pages needed in the past. This resulted in a major change of the way Google indexed information around the web with the Caffeine update. Which resulted in a major improvement in indexation time.  Both Google and Bing launched a real time vertical search engine to facilitate real time search. 2011 will show us whether the real time hype is indeed a hype.

Search meets local

Local is becoming increasingly important with the major boost of mobile internet devices. With the integration of local information from users, local search has become evidently useful: search is everywhere. This year Google made local even more important than it was before. With the reinvention of the Google Local Business Center (now called Google Places), the rollout of Google Places Search and the launch of products like Google HotPot and Google Boost, Google definitely focuses more on local and small businesses. 

Search meets evolution

I think it’s fair to say search is evolving altogether. Recently Bing started with a HTML5 enhanced version of the search engine. This year Google has been experimenting with new functionality in the search interface more than ever before. They introduced Google Instant, keyboard navigation, instant preview and several other tests in the search interface and functionality. The question is: is Google evolving to fast or are they preparing in time for major changes in search caused by changes in the way search evolves? We will find out next year.

Google meets resistance

Ever since Google took over the search market they haven’t really suffered much of a backlash. This year things changed. Bing started a serious campaign to become a major competitor for Google. They formed an alliance with Yahoo! and Facebook, got the sympathy of the industry and tried real hard to grow. Still market shares worldwide haven’t really shifted in 2010. But Steve Ballmer still has some ideas on gaining search share. But besides from competition from other search engines they also got new competitors from the social corner, especially from Facebook.
Google however got more resistance because of privacy issues involved in the product launch of Google Buzz, Google Street View issues in Germany and the UK and for developing products that we, the users, didn’t need. Clearly, Google is under siege. So should we defend Google or step up against them?
 
Let’s see what 2011 brings for Google, Bing and the search industry. Just follow State of Search and you’ll know.
I would like to wish you all happy holidays and an inspiring 2011!

By Bas van den Beld

It's February 2010 when State of Search for the very first time publishes to the world. We chose SES London to be the place we would tell the world there was a new blog out there. The initiative from me and Lisa was originally meant to be a place where we could publish our own stuff but very soon the first bloggers who wanted to join in showed up. Louis, Sam and Nichola were amongst the first to be part of a team which would grow very rapidly.