Ever hear of Naver.com?
Unless you speak Korean- probably not. But for those of you who think Google will never meet its match, pay attention. In Korea Naver has Google beat- and it’s winning by throwing a new variable into the search mix- user input.
The same way Wikipedia counts on it’s users to create content- Naver asks it’s users to answer questions- the reward – being ranked from ordinary to supernatural- and if you really know it all- you can be one of 22 “Gods.â€
While Google uses some feedback from search selections to evaluate and provide page rank- it doesn’t go as far as to ask outright for the answers. Heuristic learning for search is probably the next big thing- if it isn’t already partially here now. For those of you who don’t know what heuristic is: an educational method in which learning takes place through discoveries that result from investigations made by the student.
In other words- you learn from trial and error until you get it right.
This probably isn’t applicable to how to get your site to the top of search just yet- but, the fact remains that if you provide the right answer- or the right links to the right answer- your site will be the last place the visitors stop- making you the expert for the minute- and maybe turn the visitor into a customer.
Great post David. I love Google. It is a great tool, but clearly it has some shortcomings. With so many pages indexed, it often provides too much information. This problem was the part of the inspiration for the Squidoo project that Seth Godin launched. He talks about it extensively in his e-book, “Who’s There?” http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/whos_there.pdf
It is a great book, and totally free too! The idea is that people can create pages within Squidoo, or similar sites, on topics about which they are experts. The sites are rated by the users, and the best sites get ranked the highest. While this is a little different from Naver, it still relies heavily on the input of the users. Engaging your customers builds trust, loyalty, and ultimately creates an enjoyable experience that people want to share with others. It will be great to see how this all progresses.