Interactive Search Results; The Future of Searching…

I read an interesting post today on search Engine Watch, Yandex’s New Interactive Snippets Allow Users to Take Actions From Search Results. The idea behind creating snippets of links from websites in the SERPs of Yandex, a Russia based Search engine, was to offer solutions to visitors rather than just information. And I love that thought.

How do you make simple and boring process of paying bills, fast, quick, and safe?
Search engines seem to be geared to provide the visitors with a solution for all this and more. Most definitely this is where the search scene is headed. Your search for something, find results, and the results are so optimized and interactive that you may have to just click once to complete the whole process of purchasing online. Wow!

What is most amazing is the level of sophistication and customization that search engines are bringing to the people. Understanding what people need is what search engines have always focused their efforts upon but bringing it to this level is indeed exciting. Talking of customization, Yandex has left a lot of customization in the hands of the web site owner. Web site owners will decide which snippets they want to display in the search results. Most web site owners know which links are popular and the most converting. They can now choose to display the snippets that are most popular and be assured that the conversions will happen.

I was wondering how soon we shall see Google and other major search engines implement this. Will they or won’t they?

Imagine that you have logged in to your Google account and you are searching for the cheapest airline ticket. And you start seeing results with web sites displaying prices and fields to input your details and complete your booking process. Since you are logged in through Google, imagine the level of customization Google can do if they wish to. With your permission, perhaps they can pre-fill your first name and last name, your email id, your phone number if you have all these provided in your Google profile it will be easy to fetch the information .Imagine how easy the buying process will become!

At the end it all boils down to Interactive, time- saving, easy to use, secure, and user friendly services for potential customers.

The ride ahead is going to be very interesting, not only because search is getting so interactive but also because the way and how people are searching is changing too. Most people these days search from their mobile devises, android phones are especially geared towards easy to use  interface. I think we are seeing  fruition of all the platforms enabling the customers to take maximum advantage of what each medium has to offer.

How will this affect Search Engine Optimization?

In my opinion both organic and paid Optimization will evolve in the process. And online marketers and SEO professionals will need to keep up with the changes so as to bring out necessary updates in the process. Though, it is safe to say that the best practices will always remain the same and will never go out of style. How to use the practices and their application may change but the basics will always remain the same.