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The NY Times does an interesting piece on (yet) another enhancement to the Google Search Engine Result Page (SERP). The article, entitled “A New Tool from Google Alarms Sites” profiles a new “search within a site” box that has begun appearing, unannounced, into the SERP.
Add another emerging example to the growing list of “third page / second click” creep.
I was very pleased to see John Battelle exposing the “second click” issue from the pulpit at SES, and in his influential SearchBlog. If you have done any occasional reading through my lowly blog, you’ll recognize the concept of the “third page of search“. It’s the same thing - the issue surrounding Google’s shift within its Search Result Page to bias users towards it’s own version of vertical search experiences.
Of late, this issue has become increasingly visible with Google’s blatant behavior of pushing Google owned/operated “third page search services” into top position on the results page. In local we recognize it with the 10-list box, in video you see it with YouTube bias, in real estate we see it with Google’s home search, in auto, we’re starting to see Google vehicle search. With Google’s recently announced “knol“, you see it’s version of Wikipedia in formation.
Because I’m lazy/busy as heck these days, I’ve copied my reply in John’s blog (down below), to give you a bit of added perspective on how I see this in-formation battle.
This is a really important one, and it’s fascinating because - above all else - it is the closest thing I have seen to a shift which creates an opening for Google to be truly challenged. It demonstrates their hunger/greed pushing them to mess with the fundamental trust (and entrenched identity) with consumers - the trust to put the “best answers” at the top, and the derivative belief that Google won’t push product in front of me.
If you follow my blog, you’ve probably seen discussion of the concept of the “third page of search“. It’s a term to illustrate the area to which local media needs to pay particular attention. The entry search box = first page, Search Engine Result Page = second page, and third page is where the SERP click takes you.
Recently, a couple of notable bloggers have begun referring to the “second click”, very much a connected concept.
Tadoca founder & AOL Ad Executive, Dave Morgan, authored “The Fight for the Second Click“.
John Battelle profiles this concept in discussing Google’s KNOL announcement, aiming to assimilate the enormous click volume currently enjoyed by Wikipedia.
Summarizing the driving motive, Dave Morgan describes Google’s appetite for click traffic:
I’ve been trying to get my head around a blog post on this topic for some time. I’ll credit Justin Sanger of Local Launch for forcing the issue at the SMX Local Mobile panel where he was reported to proclaim the irrelevance of the IYP platform.
Knowing Justin, I suspect this was a dramatic statement to re-align everyone’s focus to the scale and importance of the “search agency” positioning for YP publishers. His insight and passion is a breath of fresh air in the YP industry, and I know his comments come from a genuine drive to see the YP industry transform itself.
From my vantage, Justin is right, and he’s wrong. (more…)
Hey, sometimes you have to hook ‘em with a challenging title!
Last year for SES Local I constructed this chart to make one simple point.
Local Purchase Considerations
Local is a deeply complicated multidimensional problem. It is just plain impractical to think that the search engine results page (SERP) will nail the needs of a consumer without MAJOR reconstruction of their consumer interaction paradigm. The shopping decision needs of literally hundreds of local products and services are very unique and complex. (more…)
This concept is simple - page one = inquiry, page two = results page: where you go from there is what we’re talking about.
I like to think of Search as only ending when the consumer’s intent is truly qualified and solved. As GYM often admit (albeit quietly), their job is to send you to the right place as efficiently as possible, and results pages rarely deliver more than crude approximations in qualifying intent. (more…)