Cullmann Design Blog

2 new browsers have entered the market this week with Microsoft’s launch of Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4 from Mozilla. Both of these browsers offer wider support for web standards and are the first for each software company to support HTML5. Among the many features that HTML5 offers adopters is a new set of browser parameters to allow for <speech> properties supporting text input.

The future is here: It used to be that issuing commands to computers verbally was science fiction. Now, today, it’s a reality. If you are a Google Chrome user, there are several extensions available that will allow you to speak visit Bing or Google and simply “click and speak” your search commands. It’s real, it works and there is support for it in the new HTML5 specification.

What impact does this have on search? For the future, quite a bit. When I first used this new feature, it seemed quite brilliant. Click, speak and my results where loaded. very cool, very easy. I think the novelty will wear off after this begins to see widespread adoption, but it will likely stick around. This isn’t a new technology. There have been several applications at an operating system level to accommodate disabled persons and earlier last year, both Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platforms supported voice search for their respective mobile browsers. What makes this new (and exciting), is that this is implemented via HTML5 for websites. Unlike previous iterations, all that will be required is a microphone (a safe assumption given that laptops have dominated PC sales in the last few years) and a browser supporting this new solution. Voice search usage will rise with the adoption of new browsers for most users.

Let the SEO reboot begin. The introduction of phonetic search to the already frenzied waters of search will have marketers spinning. In my limited experiment with voice search, I was not able to see any change in results between search engine results (SERP). I did notice that annunciation had a tremendous impact on the software’s ability to parse my speaking patterns. The trend of dropping vowels, using numbers and foreign top-level domains (IE: bit.ly) creates a number of top result issues. Will voice-over or phonetic [fi-net-ik] call-to-actions be the new web-design trend?

For a more academic look at how speech-to-search technology this will affect search Standford University Natural Language Processing Group has created a massive collection of data focused on natural language parsing that is spoken or typed. Their library includes information on word, phrase and word-tone as well as research in to trans-language patterns. Resources like this are likely to fuel the needs a speech-to-search system will need to be widely adopted.

To learn how you can try this out for yourself, visit the Google Chrome Blog or take a look at the demonstration.

Search engine giant Google recently announced a redesign of their homepage that enables a new way to see your search result. This new method, titled Google Instant, shows a real-time adjustment in your search results as well as “suggestions”. The new search mechanism allows users to see the results as they add characters to their search query. The page dynamically changes the search engine results page (SERPs) as well as the Google advertising that appears above and to the right of nature search results. The change is significant as it allows users the opportunity to adjust their search query immediately to fine-tune their results.

The change to the search behavior is currently only available on the Google.com homepage and the google results page. A more comprehensive inclusion of this technology into browser search bars as well as Google’s own browser Chrome is planned for later this year and early 2011. This does mean that not all searches in Google will have an equal experience (at least not in the short term). Mobile integration is also not currently available, even via the search engine’s homepage.

What does this mean for website owners and content creators? It could mean quite a lot if you are relying on search engines for your traffic. Previously, a user may have been searching for a particular subject matter, “web site design” for instance. This search string as a whole offers quite a few options (mainly websites hosting lists of web designers) all relevant to finding a talented individual to design a website. From the new Google homepage, you would begin to enter in the search “web” and you are shown links for webmd. Adding site and design to the search refines itself to the user’s query, but offers hosting, software and DIY solutions. Many which may distract or divert a user who previously may have completed the search and been presented with a web designer eager to have their business.

If you take this example and apply it to a large scale advertising campaign, you have several problems. The largest of which would be controlling search terms in as few descriptive characters as possible for any given category. Additionally, those competitors who may have a brand name similar to your own may have priority results where previously they had been ranked lower.

The obvious question is will Google Instant change search engine optimization? Yes, but not in a revolutionary way. Despite what some experts may be claiming, content optimization will likely make a tremendous leap forward. As users become more familiar with and learn how to refine their searches with addition of words, phrases and boolean statements, content creators will see less visitors, but a more engaged and “sticky” audience. Advertisers and brands should see a higher level of engagement and improved conversion rate. The SEO industry may see a temporary dip, but should come back as a re-invented and more targeted industry as a whole.

Google is the 400lb gorilla in the room, but not the ONLY gorilla. It’s easy to look at this monolithic presence and feel the earth tremble, but this new change is not as wide-sweeping as it may seem. First, Google does not host all search queries from their homepage. Many searches are begun on third party website, via toolbars, desktop utilities or from internet browsers themselves (10% of Google’s traffic alone is referred from browsers)1. Many industries have niche browsers. Bing, for instance, has one of the most popular platforms for health-oriented and travel searches. Yahoo is dominant in many foreign markets and with some age groups. You should look at where your traffic is coming from and how you interface with your audience before taking any reactive steps at all as a result of this new change. You may be in the fortunate position of receiving more traffic as a result of this new paradigm in search.

The market will adjust: Obviously, with any new technology, both users and marketers will find ways to use Google’s new solution as a platform and to generate traffic for the long (and short) tail of the market.