It’s the 1st of January 2012. You've been inundated with well-wishing SMS messages from numbers you don't have saved. You got up late and have only just showered. More than likely, you’re unbearably hungover. Like many others you have just begrudgingly thought about remedying the sour taste in your mouth...
worked out how much you have consumed over the last few days...
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before hastily working out how you can fix the consequences...
and wondered how to get rid of the faded, malting shrub which has engulfed your living room.
Although quaint and mildly amusing, the seasonal nature of these search trends was easily predicted. The same is not true for much of 2011, which turned out to be a year filled with of change, uncertainty and amazement. Below is a lighthearted rundown of 10 of the most surprising search industry happenings of last year.
Tales of the Unexpected
1. We're actually using a social network created by Google
Google+ finishes the year with a user base claimed to be around the 62 million mark, indicating that this time, they may have just got it right.
Through comprehensive Integration with existing Google profiles and aggressive marketing across the main Google platform, G+ appears to have hit the ground running, despite uncertainty about where it will fit into our current framework of social sharing and networking in the long term.
While 2010 saw the announcement, launch and immediate critical dismissal of the ill-fated Google Buzz, Google+ spent most of 2011 being taunted, lauded and speculatively compared with Facebook in varying degrees of favourable and unfavourable comment. It seemed as if the world, uncontent with continuously arguing over the merits of differing smartphone operating systems, wanted nothing more than to see two digital networking platforms wage an all-out bloody battle against each other -- like some sort of contemporary Tron that wasn't as terrible as Tron Legacy.
As it turns out, G+ ends the year in an uncertain, but interesting territory; occupying a space somewhere between the open, public broadcast realm of Twitter and the restricted, personal networking of Facebook.
Negatively....Google+'s openness, its complex encircling system and the ability to encircle people without a G+ account, means it lacks the feelings of control and privacy valued in Facebook while offering fairly disparate and confusing methods of locating individuals you may wish to connect with. Going forward, we may find that actually, the vast majority of people don't see a great deal of value in the Circles system - finding fragmented and factional communication a level of complexity above their requirements.
Positively...Google+ pages for businesses and public figures could turn out to be incredibly valuable, as writers vie for rel="author" attribution and companies compete for ever expanding rich snippet opportunities. The +1 sharing system could herald the marriage of search and social, especially if social sharing data in SERPs begins to dramatically alter CTR. Google+ hangouts offer a beautifully designed feature which should really have been available on Facebook and the Circles system has merit for informal interaction across real-life companies and organisations. In the end, it may be that the smaller elements of Google+ become its ultimate virtue -- succeeding to unite presences across the web; acting as a résumé for an individual's personal and professional web activity.
2. MC Hammer announced the launch of a search Engine
Of all the high profile entrepreneurs one could have foreseen staking interest and venture capital in a search start-up - low down on the list was early 90's rapper and reality TV star - MC Hammer. Wiredoo, currently in pre-beta is planned to be a deep search engine - offering uses related information about their search query - as well as results. In 2012, we should see Wiredoo beta launched alongside Vanilla Ice's new social network - Stop, Collaborate & Listen.
3. Google crept in Flight Search and Hotel Search
In another blow to small-time affiliates, Google sneakily crept in their own flight and hotel information, allowing users to compare prices, dates and quotes without having to leave SERPs.
While worrying many SEOs, with the view that Google is moving into a place of monopolistic power with regards to consumer choice; the feature was generally welcomed by users who found it helpful, accurate and valuable. In 2012, we may see Google making the foray into more temporal searches, such as train times, museum opening hours and TV listings. Google Shopping will probably be given a further revamp in 2012.
4. Adobe abandoned development on Flash Player for Mobile Devices
Adobe realised that Flash was unlikely to stand strong in the future; with the expanding war on site-speed, lack of iOS compatibility and YouTube shift towards HTML5 amongst a multitude of factors. Seeing the writing on the wall, Adobe made the brave move to lose some staff and shift their focus towards HTML5 and AIR development, in order to maintain relevancy in an increasingly mobile internet space. Adobe Edge, HTML5 & CSS3 content creation software has been released in preview mode.
In 2012, we'll now see an enormous collective push towards providing exciting, search-engine friendly HTML5 & CSS3 content - with all major parties pulling in broadly similar directions. Now is the time to revamp any legacy Flash content and get on-board the HTML5 train.
5. Microsoft fixed Internet Explorer (sort of)
The haunting presences of archaic IE versions were offered an exorcism in 2011, after Microsoft announced that it would bring auto-update to IE. Starting in Brazil and Australia early this year, IE updates will be included within the wider Windows Update system. Those with auto-update on will be automatically upgraded to IE9. Assuming success in Brazil and Aus, the updates will likely roll out progressively to the rest of the world, allowing us to finally get really creative with all that nice HMTL5 & CSS3 business without worrying too much about old browser compatibility. On the downside, Internet Explorer will probably still be rubbish throughout 2012.
When this auto-update system comes into full force, we can expect complaints from thousands of IT and software companies who have made a good living out of offering pop-up blockers and Internet security systems. The United Kingdom Civil Service will also likely make some fuss as in a feat of unprecedented irony, they have so far refused to allow staff to use anything other than IE6 because of "security concerns".
6. Anonymous took down Visa.
Everyone's favourite V for Vendetta fans made a quite astonishing display of their capabilities in 2011, as they attacked both Mastercard and Visa under what was termed "Operation Payback" - a campaign to target firms the organisations viewed as being against Wiki-leaks. Who knows what we could see from this group in 2012....
7. Apple's voice search was xenophobic
Although pundits were expecting voice integration with the iPhone following Apple's purchase of Siri back in 2010, few expected it to make the huge leap above Google voice search into passive aggressive comments and sarcastic humour. Seemingly unable to effectively decipher the majority of non-north American accents, Siri patronisingly asks most Scottish people to repeat their request and currently refuses to give local search data outside of the US. In 2012, we might see a tempering of Siri's nationalistic bias, with yelp powered local search data offered in Europe and around the world. We'll also likely see Android produce a similar functionality for their handsets - perhaps with a more liberal, multicultural vibe.
8. Exact match domains became more powerful
Despite what i think will be a general consensus that the quality of Google SERPs improved dramatically over the past year, exact match domain names seemed to be ranking better and appearing in greater number, even for extremely competitive keywords.
This was, of course, extremely frustrating for those of us who hold a romantic vision of a world where spammy tactics are redundant and SEOs, clad entirely in white, run around meadows in harmony with Google; gaily laughing at the fools from paid-seo-friendly-links.com.
While we can assume and hope that this problem will eventually get fixed, we can take solace in the introduction of rich snippets and schema.org which also happened this past year - giving genuinely good sites another way to prove their worth in the SERPs.
9. Google stopped providing keyword referral data for logged in users
To the sounds of justified indignation and uproar from the SEO community, Google announced they would be blocking keyword referral information in Google Analytics for logged in users.
Will this affect the day-to-day SEO? I'm not sure. But we'll have to sit tight in 2012 in case any other nasty surprises come our way.
10. Digg fell to insignificancy while Reddit went exponential
Russ Jones spoke about the Fall of Digg and the rise of Reddit at his 2011 Linklove presentation, but few could have predicted how right on the money he was. As we move into 2012, Google Trends shows Reddit on an almost exponential rise while Digg trickles out to nothing.
and It's good news for SEOmoz, whose strong performance in 2011 suggests that they too may overtake Digg in 2012.
A happy and prosperous new year to you all!
I tried MC Hammers's site and all I got was a message that said "You can't search this". lol
+1 ha ha
seriously just lol'd :)
It certainly was a year that highlighted the need to be flexible, curious & most of all, unflappable.
Of all these I think the rise of exact match domain strength is the one I find most fascinating...with Matt Cutts making noises about Google moving to reduce their strength and then nothing happening, this struck me as the classic Waiting for Godot effort of 2011.
Remember this?
[last lines]
Vladimir: Well? Shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let's go.
[they do not move]
To then witness them seem to actually increase in strength has been, to say the least, perplexing, but I suspect a great relief for many.
The question is, when, or if, Google now plans to act on this one?
Sha
Beckett SEO analogies?! Big thumbs up for you Sha.
I saw Ian Mckellen and Patrick Stewart do WFG a few years ago - one of the best shows i've seen. I just felt bad about sitting through most of the performance wondering when Magneto was going to fight Xavier.
Oh wow - to see it on the professional stage is one thing, but with those two in the roles would just be awesome! I've only seen a couple of community productions which were good, but not great.
Afraid it's the word nerd in me - can't help myself.
LOL...I always felt bad about waiting for the last lines in both Acts :)
My prediction for 2012, Google loses market share to Bing and Google + will eventually flop
I think Google + will eventually flop too. (i hope so anyway)
Why do you think Bing will do better Alan? Are there any upcoming platform changes that you think will shift things up a bit? Or do you think the Bing will perform better as a consequence of something Google does?
I think Google is getting too big for its britches and people are starting to resent them a bit.
2011 saw Bing make a real push with new webmaster tools and I think that Bing will capture more of the search marketshare in 2012.
I think Google+ cheapens search, I think to gain market share is social they have risked market share in search. There is an impression that they have lost their way, with making electric cars, operating systems, browsers and stuff. You often see businesses expanding into other markets until they get into problems, usually when they get strong competition, and then make a statement that they are going to concentrate on their core business.I also agree with Justin, Google are pissing people off, with reading peoples email, paying for links, the Google analytics thing with hiding keyword data and other stuff. A lot of people disliked Microsoft because they were the big guys on the block; I see that same resentment coming to Google.Also I think Bing a better search engine, they have a lot of moves to come yet, for example I am in Australia and we don’t have a lot of the features you have in Bing in the US, local search Bing Business and other stuff, in fact we only just came out of Beta. So there is a lot of market share to be picked up internationally. All this and more gives me a gut feeling.
I agree with you Alan. But the thing is, our perspective is shared by about perhaps 0.1% of users. Most people still don't know what Google+ is, let alone that it's making its way into search. A few may have noticed small pictures appearing underneath some results on the page, but have never given thought to how that got there or what it means. Google are not pissing off 99.9% of people and pleasing/irrirtating the SEO community will make very little difference to them in the long run.
Plus, if size and attempting to cover too many markets is going to be Google's downfall, then how are Microsoft the ones most likely to fill that space? To outside eyes, there appears to be an innovation deficiency in Microsoft at the moment and i really can't see Bing getting ahead of the game in any significant way. While they may have some good up-and-coming features, most of these are things which Google have had for a long while.
I was talking of the general users, i believe when people want to search, they dont want social, it makes the results look like its catering for teenagers,
I think innovation in search is being led by Bing, Google has made more changes since bing has challened them than the made in the years before, they have responded to inovation from bing. such as look an feel, flight search and many other features, they even tried out wallpager like bing.
Nice post. I see Google+ ironing out some wrinkles in due time. Savvy observation about its impending contribuition to the dynamic between social and search. I think we'll see more peculiar things develop in 2012; times are a-changin - I can't even secure the print edition of newspapers in my hometown bookstore any longer! "Stop, collaborate, and listen" - haha. I think an EXCELLENT Reddit (viva la Reddit!)post would be "Potential Celeb Online Platforms of 2012" with Charlie Sheen's reputation management company, "FTW," being one.
Nice data you collected and shared.
As you also aware that Google is now showing more than 10 result in page. Also local search is filled with GOOGLE product only....
so i am worried about the future SEO?
any comment.
Good call... we see Google placing more importance on local results with each update. Will there be any room left for organic results in 2012? lol
Hey Dubs,
I've always felt that the organics will never go away. To some degree they'll always be there in some form. It's all about giving the user what they want. If a user wants local results, they'll get local results from Google.
@Bezzie, while I agree that the organic results are typically more relevant to the search query, it seems the Google is pushing more and more 'local results' on the SERP... Dr. Pete had a fun write up about "counting to 10"! https://www.seomoz.org/blog/counting-to-10-the-google-way
I think it all links in with their desire to provide more rich information within the SERPs, rather than just links and descriptions. Like it or not, the hotel search (for example) is extremely useful for users - as it provides unbiased pricing information, relatively objective reviews, images and location information. It allows users to make an initial decision about general interest before clicking through to an external site.
This *should* all help to reduce bounce rates across these sites. High bounce-rates on organic ecommerce results is a clear negative sign for Google, as it indicates that the result they provided was not fit for purpose. The local-style results probably help to weed out the irrelevant or low quality sites.
If end user will find their products and search results useful than Google is going to stay for longer, if not than you may say that Bing and yahoo will get the advantage of it.
@ Phil - Thanks for adding Google insight chart with awesome details.
Hey Phil, Thanks for the brief Recap of the past year's search Surprises. Some of them are really good and beneficial e.g. the launch of Google+, more developed IE from Microsoft ,the SERP got more developed and the social and search integration made the internet marketing world to rely on quality information and New ways of sharing, etc. and some of them were quite shocking and controversial e.g. not able to get the user data of the logged in Users of Google,apple's Siri's Uncompatibity with various search terms.
But in 2012, I think there would be more surprises because the technological drift began rapidly in the mid of 2011 so we can say that it won't stop so early!
Thanks once again for this awesome Post phil, thumb Up to you!
Thanks Ajay! I agree - 2012 is going to be an interesting adventure!
Phil
Well done - Very interesting information - Happy New Year
Poor Digg, once reddit learn to open links in new tabs, that might be the final nail in the coffin for them. I wonder what sites will burn in 2012, no one knew that MySpace would fall so hard back in 2008? whos next?
I love how fickle the internet is, no site is safe.
I wonder about the future of LinkedIn, The design and usability of the site is extremely poor. I speculate that if a simpler system which can accrew the same amount of data with greater ease comes about - things could change. I wonder if this might be an avenue for G+....
Good call! I read somewhere that the traffic on LinkedIn is still rising, but I think it’s about to hit its maturity stage and then decline.
Like you said the 'design and usability of the site is extremely poor'. But from talking to friends and clients, I found that they don't see many positive results from using the site. As other sites become more useful for businesses, LinkedIn might do a MySpace and fall to insignificancy.
Nice analysis of some varied data there. I was interested in the continued increase in power of exact match domains, I can't see them lasting much longer especially with all of Google's talk towards the end of the year - it's obviously on their radar (check out my blog post on the future of exact match domains). Still I expect we can take advantage of it for some time to come yet.
In terms of how Google is getting in on the flights and hotel booking market, I'll be keeping an eye on the various developments that continue to move Google further into the realm of service provider (or intemediary at the very least), it seems that that's the way Google is going. I work on a website that sells events tickets and provides the facility to book restaurants and hotels so I can definitely see this as being a market they're going to move into full speed. It makes me wonder where they'll go next.
Cheers - that's an interesting post. I personally think we're not a million miles away from seeing Brand Logos appear in the SERPs in exactly the way currently works. Logos pulled from trusted company G+ pages appearing next to their results? - Surely that's a no brainer.
If you ask my tales of the unexpected. I would list the following:
1. The EU cookie law
This was totally unexpected and the most ludicrous law i have heard since middle ages.
2. SOPA - Big brother of the Cookie law.
Just when i thought these Computer illiterate politicians are done with cookie laws, I got another surprise 'stop online piracy act'. "We would never give up"
3. The Rise of Blekko and Yandex $30 million investment in it.
Bleeko popped up out of no where and surpised everyone by its unique ability to deliver accurate and relevant results without the spam. Its 'zorro' update is truly remarkable.
4. Google, Mozilla Renew Firefox Search Deal For 3 More Years
Honestly didn't expect Google to renew this search deal.
You brought "searchengineland" to SEOMoz :D
Great post, Phil.
Number 8 (exact match domains becoming more powerful) is something that I wasn't particularly fond of. I remember doing a search for "ppc manchester" a while back and about 5 or 6 of the results were EMDs, either with or without a hyphen between the words and a mixture of .com's, .co.uk's and even the likes of .biz's and .me.uk's. I'm pretty sure they had weaker SEO profiles (less optimised on-site, less links, etc.) than their non-EMD counterparts. I thought it was a really bad SERP. I just checked it again and there's now only 2 (although they are positions #1 and #2) - I'm sure I read somewhere that Google's given it less weight more recently.
I had a theory as to why EMDs became stronger - it gives brands a stronger push. If someone types in "Confused," chances are they're looking for Confused.com (here in the UK). I'm sure Confused.com was already ranking at #1 for it, but for other, lesser-known brands, it gives them more of a chance to be found for their name. However, I wonder if a backfiring side-effect is that it made EMDs more powerful in non-brand search terms. Either way, sites, affiliates and even companies took advantage: I even saw one company actually register its name as "IT Recruitment Agencies," which was absolutely horrendous...
Cheers! Yes, i agree with you that the EMD power increase probably has a lot to do with user preference for brands in search results. I expect solutions around local listings and company G+ accounts may help Google distinguish actual brands from EMD affiliate efforts going forward. Will be interesting to see how they handle it though, as clearly sites like https://www.ukchristianlouboutinsale1.com/ - that just sell fake products cannot keep appearing.
Absolutely. Good example. Crikey, even if that were a legitimate site, I still wouldn't touch it because it looks fake (especially with the number at the end - looks like a really old email, where people put numbers because there were 5 other joebloggs' before them!) So I'd consider it a dangerous strategy long-term, IMO.
Question: Is Wiredoo going to be a serious search engine, or is this purely for novelty? And, you weren't serious about Vanilla Ice's right? Hey, anything is possible - I have to ask. :-)
I think Wiredoo is a totally serious endeavour. How it will eventually take form and what the results will look like is currently unclear, but Hammer is genuinely doing this. I think it's fair to say that the eventual result (unfortunately) won't look anything like my 5 minute photoshop mock-up.
Regarding Vanilla Ice - hopefully he'll somehow come across my post and realise what a brilliant idea it is. Until then, it's (unfortunately) just a humorous idea - couresty of my boss, Hannah Smith.
Nice data collected and shown properly. good.
Hey Phil,
Wonderful insights. One question i used to ask myself quiet often, is Google abondoning its slogan 'Don't Be Evil' ? Anything in excess is bad, and that what Google seems to be doing.
Do you agree ?
Have a GREAT 2012 ahead. lets see what next after Panda ! :)
Cheers
Ankit
Hi Ankit,
Thanks a lot! With regards to your question, no i don't think Google is abandoning the "Don't Be Evil" manifesto - though i know my opinion on this is relatively unpopular both politically and within the web marketing community.
The majority of Google's work has continually succeeded in making the world a more prosperous, open, user friendly place - improving global connectivity, business marketing opportunities and allowing millions of people to make a living. This past year has been a perfect example of "not-evil" behaviour - as Google provided more information, faster, to more users, with improved user targeting. Sure, they may have been providing more ads and preferencing their own content - but the ads are good and their content is generally excellent. Google's legacy is in providing platforms for others to engage with the web - and there is nothing more "not evil" than this.
I'm a supporter of individual rights, which means i believe individuals and companies should be able to do whatever they wish, provident they don't use deception, fraud or physical force to achieve their aims. While Google may have recently done a lot of things which have irritated those in the web marketing world; they really haven't engaged in deceptive or illigimate practices to achieve their success. So, from that perspective, i don't think Google will ever cross the 'don't be evil' threshold until they start selling user-data or outright lying. In the main, i think they should be praised as heroes, rather than rivilled and villainised for their size, power and determination to make as much money as possible.
The one thing i do have concerns about, is how much they are spending lobbying congress. While Google's "monopoly" is currently only a consequence of their superb products and services, i am concerned about how things will change if the mostly free market of the web starts get heavily regulated.
Hi Phil, your point is really solid and carries indepth analysis. Thanks a ton for sharing insights !
Thanks for the info. Love the simon graphics. Interesting to see all the changes over the past year in the online world. Get ready for 2012!
Google moving into flights and hotels has to be worrying for any comparison engine site; credit cards, home loans, broadband etc. Google knows these sites all make a fortune from organic...so best make them buy more Adwords... ;)
Great post Phil... I'm still gutted MC Hammer no-showed on us at Search Love though. Maybe next year ;)
He arrived in NYC...in spirit at least: https://www.distilled.net/store/sl-2011-humans/
Really interesting post and your analysis of various data are very amazing. Google is displaying rich snippets not only for "better" sites but for all sites that use them.I am hoping new challenges and changes in 2012.
Really enjoyed the format of this article :) Use of Google Trends data to illustrate sections & manage the flow was brilliant!
What a year it was.. can't wait for WiredDoo to launch :)
Cheers Woj, glad you enjoyed it!
@3: Expect to see more "integration" by Google. Every large, profitable business can sooner or later expect to compete against Google itself.
That was a fun read. Great insights use and analysis on everything Google pretty much.
Again, Happy New Year to all you mozzers!
I must say though that the initial bunch of graphs DID bring the hangover charging back!Great analysis though, very interesting to see the Digg vs Reddit data.
And not happy to see the comparision of SEOmoz and Digg.
Its like you are comparining old people to young people
It's just interesting to see the comparative size of the branded searches and hope quickly things change - i'm not comparing the sites in any other sense. If someone were to suggest a couple of years ago that SEOmoz would be more searched for than Digg - i think the vast majority of people would have bet against it.
N° 5 is the one which made me very happy. All the time you get confronted with a customer who surfes the www with such old dinosaur browsers and it simply has to work and look there good, too. HTML 5 - here we come!
For sure 2011 was the year of CHNAGE and also a year of progress to an extend, from the search point of view ... Google+ after the continuous fails in the social market like Google Buzz, Orkut and Google wave was a good progress.
But, not provided data to webmaster and instead of the search terms providing (not provided) data is actually a negative change in my opinion! But this year like every other year fulfils the promise of ‘continuous change’ which is the real beauty of this industry!
I am hoping more challenges and changes in 2012!
happy new year is due i guess :)
Yea, it's strange to see exact match domains working so well soon, or becoming stronger even as you suggested. And I can't wait to set WireDoo as my default search engine.
Good post. I hope that google will correct the dominance of "exact match domain on search"...It was just frustrating to observe how domain with the keyword "blackfriday" or "cybermonday" ranked very very very higher during that corresponding days on google; Pathetic!
Can understand your frustration ... Its like your kid got more quality and school's president son got the prize
Try 2012.com. may work for you
Thanks for the fantastic post, Phil!
You mentioned: "...we can take solace in the introduction of rich snippets and schema.org which also happened this past year - giving genuinely good sites another way to prove their worth in the SERPs."
What I've seen so far, Google is displaying rich snippets not only for "good" sites but for all sites that use them. I don't have much data to back this up but I've seen several people mentioning how easily they got their snippets showing in SERPs.
Do you have different experience with it? Has there been some evidence Google is displaying snippets only from the "trusted" sites?
I have certainly some sites of questionable quality getting rich snippets - but i don't think this is a problem. Most of these instances have been somewhat branded searches, where a rich snippet seems generally appropriate.
I think of rich snippets as like advanced Meta-descriptions - just further opportunities to sell your site. They are therefore of more benefit to HQ sites than LQ sites - who will invariably be able to do a better job of selling their value. It's the same with the instant page previews - if your site is nicely designed, it will likely be a more appealing choice. Greater opportunities for content inclusion benefit the good sites much more than than bad.
Stumbleupon must have factored into Digg dropping traffic no?
I'm glad to see that Digg is "going down" because I never quite liked the system. I love how a site like Reddit operates where all contant has a fair chance of rising and reaching the front page if it's awesome, and it's not just the "most popular" people with the most firends who can get fame.
thanks for the 2011 recap! only time will tell to see what 2012 has in store for us!
Above all, in history 2011 will be marked as "Year of Panda", and what made it worse is the shutdown of keyword referal data. To me it was hardcore implementation of Google's policy to keep it's monopoly over search industry intact.
I can share your frustration of the keyword referral shutdown. Do you also think Panda was a bad step for Google? I'm personally quite a big fan of Panda, as i think its done a lot to force webmasters into producing better quality content.