By Lee De Coster
What are the paradigms that exist to change the way business is done globally? How can we interact and transact with businesses in new and interesting ways, saving time and money?
False economy of search time
We've all had the experience of searching for a product, service or business online. We enter our search term in the little box, hit enter, and ‘Hey presto!' in just 0.024 seconds we have 50,000,000 results. So now what?
On a human level how can we deal with that many results? The time taken to then read through a list, click on search result, find dead end or old sites and wade through adverts that loosely relate to our search represents the real speed of the search. It's as if you are given the haystack quickly, but then have to find the needle.
There is also the issue of relevance. If I am looking for antique period tables, I don't really want to get search results full of the periodic table of elements. In our most popular search platforms, the tail wags the dog. Search enquiries for goods and services generate adverts for other products that have spurious relevance to our search.
Geographic search platforms are the future of business search
Search platforms in the future will do more than just present business lists. In general the most important aspect of business information is geographic. Where is the product or service that I need? Or where is it in relation to where I am or where I am going to be?
Both Business to Business and Consumer to Business search will be enhanced by the development of better and more intuitive map based searches. Platforms that have the most use and relevance will be those that allow users to directly interact with the map itself and to define the area we want to find. They will list businesses from closest to furthest rather than who paid to be at the top.
Business information will change from a confusing alphabetical list to a bird's eye view of an exact geographic region that we have defined ourselves.
Commodity based searching and e-commerce will increase GDP
Technologies will be developed that will allow ultra specific brand based searches in a geographic context.
For example, a consumer will be able to search for three 4-litre cans of white Dulux ceiling paint, within two kilometres of home. The consumer will be able to stipulate the payment method they wish to use and then request offers from businesses that supply that brand under the terms specified, in the geographic area that has been set for the search.
As e-commerce and geographic search platforms merge into one mental construct, there will be a time compressive effect on commerce. The time from the moment a searcher decides to do a search, to when the transaction is completed will be shortened slightly. This means that more commerce gets done, resulting in economic benefits on a national and global scale.
The Holy Grail: advertising free platforms that make a profit
The biggest challenge that faces online developers is to achieve everything that I have described above, but to do so in a way that makes a profit.
Searchers will want extremely high specificity search, geographic functionality, next generation e-commerce, and all with no advertising clutter.
The next giant in the online world will be the company that works out how to solve all these problems…and make money along the way.
Lee De Coster is the co-founder of Affiliates Australia.
affiliatesaustralia.com.au
