How will the consumer experience benefit from more search innovation on the open web? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Steven Read, Chief Product Officer in New York, on Quora:
Competition unlocks innovation, and both of those things have been sorely missing in search advertising for well over a decade. Consumers are left with options that are few and far between, and those options don’t feel pressured to improve or scale experiences for consumers.
This creates an ecosystem of lackluster search experiences that offer less relevancy than ever before.
That’s why search on the open web is such a profound market opportunity. It enables and empowers people to find relevant results without being forced or funneled to the legacy search engine results page (SERP).
Search on the open web is fueling a consumer search renaissance — one where consumers are no longer plagued by irrelevant advertising or friction-filled shopping journeys. Now, 60% of consumer searches are beginning on the open web outside of legacy SERPs. The search market is primed to return back to a future of innovation — a future that has been all but snuffed out due to Google’s monopoly in this space.
We’re seeing a wave of generative AI platforms and startups bringing new functionality and more engaging opportunities to consumer search on the open web. There’s boundless potential for advertisers and publishers alike to optimize the consumer search journey on the open web with innovative, intent-driven media that captures consumers at opportune moments when they’re primed to purchase.
No two people search in exactly the same way. With more options available and more focus placed on developing delightful experiences that empower consumers to search in a way that best suits them — whether it’s keyword-based, visual, conversational, chatbot-fueled, AI-powered, social-first — search innovation on the open web can guarantee improved results relevancy and fuel new brand and product discovery. That’s volume and value that legacy SERPs simply can’t provide.
When you can seamlessly search using your preferred method and find something new that you’ve never seen before or never knew you needed, that’s a valuable consumer experience the search market should be striving to replicate for everyone. Search on the open web is the best playing field to accomplish this feat.
This question originally appeared on Quora – the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
