By Janus Boye
An example from the Eastern Summit University on how search autocompletes to help the user
Source: SearchStax
After almost two decades of only niche activity among the pure enterprise search experts, suddenly the topic of search has been a big one in our recent conferences and peer group meetings. Now it’s all about improving content findability.
It’s almost as if when Google was added to the English dictionary in 2006, progress stopped. I realise that’s unfair, also to Google, which arguably has made progress, but still for many years, two things were certain when it came to search: Google was the king and on most websites site search was broken.
As vendor-neutral DXP architect Bastian Sirvend from SUTSCHE eloquently put it:
“Search have always played a special role in the past decades. Either underrepresented or over-engineered”
What’s changed when it comes to the search experience?
It's clear that something is happening at the moment:
Usage of AI is on the rise with people using ChatGPT, Copilot and similar to find what they are looking for (even though ChatGPT wasn’t developed for search).
There’s also the arrival of new tools like Perplexity.ai, which label itself as a free AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question. In a tech update at the beginning of the GenAI DIY era (back in March), Seb Barre from TELUS also highlighted the Arc Web Browser, which came out in July 2023 and aggregates search results into one page. They refer to it as browsing for you - as an alternative to you having to go through lists of links.
On the topic of AI, there’s also AI-powered chatbots from vendors like ai12z. This is basically like putting a copilot on your website. Think next-level chatbot without hallucination.
Many are realising that Google is more ad platform than search engine. It seems consensus in our peer groups that Google search results are getting poorer and less helpful by the day. The leaked documents this summer (see The biggest findings in the Google Search leak) confirmed that how Google ranks in a black box and what they say, is not exactly what they do.
Behaviour is shifting from search being a secondary way to navigate towards being the primary way. Remember my 2017 post? If not, start here: Navigation is for losers.
Expectations are going up, also for site search. This is likely connected to the behaviour shifting, but it also means that if you don’t meet expectations, say for a product search, your customers will go elsewhere more quickly. Visual site search is also driving up expectations. More on another driver for that shortly.
As mentioned earlier, site search has largely been broken on many websites, but now vendors like Algolia, Elastic (now dubbed ‘The AI Search Company’), SearchStax, Squiz and others are pushing ahead. It’s now enterprise search amplified by AI - giving teams the ability to control how site search is managed, what results are surfaced, and where automation can make an impact.
Social media, in particular TikTok, is really driving visual search and taking it to the next level. If you don’t like TikTok, then think Pinterest. Visual search on these platforms are so fast and for some use cases, like very specific searches for products or services, it’s unparalleled in terms of speed and quality results.
Sameer Magoon, CEO and founder at search vendor SearchStax summarises it like this:
“The rise of search as the primary entry point to website experiences signifies a fundamental shift in how we understand visitor intent. As AI-driven tools and platforms evolve, the expectations for seamless and intuitive search capabilities are higher than ever. This isn't just about indexing content; it’s about creating an experience that meets users where they are and anticipates their needs. Organisations must recognize that effective search and understanding user’s search intent is no longer a luxury—it's a necessity”
Or again briefly in the words of Bastian Sirvend:
“These new offerings powered by AI and more represent a real game changer, also in terms of project management as well as the resulting benefits for the user”
What does this mean for you and your digital initiatives?
Clearly this topic of content findability needs more attention. Not only when it comes to platform changes, but also in general when it comes to content management, content modelling and the disciplines around keeping the quality high.
To quote Jan Havel, Managing Partner and Co-founder at ACTUM Digital, a Prague-based systems integrator:
“Product search dominates the use cases and remains a key driver of implementation complexity. Technology is progressing with AI at its core, but underlying product data quality and taxonomies, and specifics of UI still require major investments”
In brief: Many organisations on the buy-side have underestimated what it takes to really make search work.
When you put effort into search it really changes the game as the daisy search engine by Landfolk shows.
Landfolk is a marketplace for the special holiday homes and they've recently taken a new stab at search. Less specs, more dreamy. Here's the search interface
Very visual search results on the Landfolk search for a holiday home
It’s hard to predict the future, but it’s likely that both technology and search offerings will still require an effort to work well, and importantly, you need a strategy and some execution to go with it to keep the content quality high. As the search experts have been saying for as long as I can remember: Garbage in, garbage out. Or in the words of Matt Garrepy from CMS Critic:
“It still comes down to having the right strategy and then employing the right people and technology.”
Learn more about search
Joining us at CMS Kickoff 25 in January is Sameer Maggon, founder & CEO SearchStax who will share his insights on how to make search work. Sameer gave an impressive demo back at CMS Kickoff 24, and we are happy to have him and SearchStax back — this time also as conference partners. Tickets are still available. See you there!
We’ve written a bit more on search in the past. Here’s a few ones:
Finally, we’ll naturally continue the conversation in our peer groups and conferences. Join us and be a part of the conversation