Google considers future of search

11/09/2008

Search services still need to evolve considerably to offer optimum usefulness for consumers, according to comments from Google that may interest search marketing professionals.

Writing on the search engine's official blog, Google vice-president of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer speculated that web search will need to become more widely available, possibly through a device capable of conducting searches without interrupted connectivity.

She also mulled over the potential offered by conducting search not just via text, but also images, voice and even music. A wider range of media also needs to be available as search results, the expert claimed, citing Google's Universal Search as how this might be possible.

Ms Mayer went on to touch upon the issue of user data and personalisation - something has been highlighted recently through Google's amendment of its policy regarding the retention of user information.

"Even with the most rudimentary user information, search engines can and will provide drastically better search results," she commented.