The Future of Search

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Bing Network. All opinions are 100% mine.

While you can’t have your request for Scotty to ‘Beam You Up” fulfilled, you can expect a nice explanation as to why

We used to say that the future of search was “contextual” search. This meant that we’d move beyond matching keywords to web pages and instead search is based on an understanding of the context of a query and how this modified the answer. Currently, we’re moving rapidly beyond even that rationale. For one thing, search queries are far removed from basic text-input; whether this is based on keywords or full questions that are being searched for - they’re more commonly arising in the form of conversational language, as entered by voice recognition.

This is a time where we are getting more and more used to talking to computers, whether it’s chatbots on social media or Siri on the iPhone or Cortana on the Xbox. These 'guys' all have personality, and the idea of slowly shouting keywords at them is becoming absurd – we expect to be able to talk, them to be able to listen and for them to act like genuine personal assistants who will give us an immediate answer. But not just any answer, one that is fully tailored to us. We are now the context and technology now has enough information to know what sort of things we like, and, more importantly, where we are and want to go when we like them.

The more omnipresent technology is the easier it needs to be to interact with. Most people have seen an episode of Star Trek where the characters talk to a computer that they cannot see. This idea of a futuristic know-all seemed to be genuine science fiction until recently. With the Anniversary update of Windows 10 about to appear, Cortana and her channels into the Bing Network will be active all the time – even on the lock screen – ready to assist whatever time it is. Yet she’ll be intelligent enough to know not to reveal secure information on a locked computer.

With this in mind, it’s never been a better idea to get aboard the search train (or should that be star ship)? Search results are only as good as the information put in at both ends. Networks like Bing are great at connecting users with the goods, content and services that they want, in the right situations and context, so it’s well worth talking directly to the Network about how to be that desired goods and/or services provider that gets recommended.

Learn more about Bing Network