Finding content, products and information on the web has always been reliant upon search engines and other directories, but much has changed since the first days of the internet. The nature of search has become more sophisticated, relying heavily upon search engine algorithms that now rank content quality over simple keyword matches. This has drastically improved the quality of users’ experiences on the web, but search has reached a sort of plateau with respect to the quality of those experiences. We’ll explain why search has become stale in recent years and what needs to happen in order to provide new and exciting concepts.

Search Is Monopolized

For most of the internet’s existence, there were many different search engines that people used in order to find content and websites. As of late, however, this constant competition has faded. Currently, Google controls more than ninety percent of all search engine traffic. This has created a result in which secondary search competitors – like Bing, for instance – cannot grab a sufficient share of the internet’s traffic in order to provide better experiences to users. This monopoly by Google has resulted in less dynamic growth in new areas, leading to people pinging search engines and having the same experiences and access to services as has been the case for several years now.

Ads Are Killing Competition

The need for exposure in search engines under the modern formula has pretty much forced the expansion of ad-based search visibility in a number of markets. Paid search campaigns are a great way to boost short-term traffic numbers and increase performance, but unfortunately, it has also made it very difficult for smaller brands to effectively compete. Without huge ad budgets, it can be very difficult for brands to gain exposure in all of the areas in which ads have becoming prominent. In most search results, paid ads now take up some of the most prominent search real estate. Without this competition, SEO becomes the only avenue for boosting search engine web traffic and that takes quite a long period of time to develop.

Similar Experiences

When using search engines – whether it be Google (likely), Bing or something else – the overall experience is roughly the same. For search engine, there hasn’t been much motivation to change the dynamic in years. If you’re Google, then the dominance enjoyed makes changing key elements unattractive. If you’re Bing or someone else, then fear of deviating from the accepted “norm” that Google provides is considered risky. Because of this, search engine experiences for users have largely been stagnant in recent years. This means that a revolution in how we search for information is unlikely to develop until or unless one or more of the prior mentioned elements changes.

Conclusion

Pinging search engines for information and content has been a status quo experience for several years now, and the future doesn’t look that much will change. It will take a major shake-up in either the monopoly Google enjoys or how brands rank in search for much to change. A major new competitor may emerge or an existing search engine may finally develop a radically different method for providing information to users, but until that happens, expecting more of the same is a safe bet.