… We Just Need Your Information. Thanks.
I’m being tongue in cheek, but only partially. This isn’t news, it’s only speculation on my part.
I want to give you a quote.
make a decision without having to click to another page
Do you have any idea where that quote is from? It’s from a blog from a particular search engine. It suggests that they can give you all the information you need without having to “click another page”. Ponder that for a moment.
Another thought to ponder. If you contribute to wikipedia articles, did you know that you are a contributor for content to the major search engines? The big search engines love your content! Afterall, “make a decision without having to click another page” seems where we’re headed. Sure, most search engines did provide a snippet or teaser, but those days are going, going, gone. If you don’t believe me, reread that quote. From what I see, it’s the new race for the search engines now.
I think of a situation where you have a bookstore that sells magazines. That same bookstore has nice sofas that you can sit on. It’s wonderful! You can pick that magazine off the shelf, go sit on a sofa and read that magazine cover to cover and place it back on the shelf after you’re done. It didn’t cost you a cent! Since the bookstore has magazines and books, you can occupy a lot of your time with reading and not having to pay a penny. Sounds an awful lot like a library doesn’t it? Difference is that the bookstore and publishers need to make money to stay in business.
Like that bookstore, websites need traffic (visits) to stay in business. People clicking ads or buying products or hearing about more great content that you have and can upsell. Well, you can’t upsell, you can get visitors to click ads and you can’t sell products without visitors coming to your site. If those search engines go with the philosophy of “without having to click another page”, where does that leave websites? I’ll tell you.
Your website is becoming that magazine or book in that bookstore with the comfy sofas. People get to see your content and your articles or your information without you making a penny. Not an impression made. If you are writing a book and it’s in that bookstore, how accurate are your sales? What if 50% of the people read your book in the store without buying it? You would have no idea. Same thing with the magazine companies. If consumers can come in a read the 10 articles they want and leave the magazine on the shelf, isn’t that going to kill your business.
Think about it. This isn’t one search engine. This is monkey see, monkey do. Just remember next time you write into wikipedia what you are feeding. Think of it like you’re putting another sofa in that bookstore for people to sit down and read somebody’s magazine without ever having to pay for it.
The last point is that when you can “make a decision without having to click another page”, you still have an opportunity to click on the search engine’s ads. Not the websites ads, but the ads on the search engines. Think of that like the bookstore have a cover charge. Go ahead, read what you like, pay the bookstore the cover charge, yet the authors and publishers aren’t getting a cut of the action.
I haven’t brought up the Siri’s of the world either. Think though. If you ask Sira a question, how can you trust the answer? If they know the answer, who provided it? If they provided the answer to Siri, what do “they” get out of it? Nothing is the answer. Thanks for the answer, we appreciate your knowledge and information that populates Siri. Again, great for Apple but not great for the people or persons involved with the accurate, correct or official information.
Just my take of course. Feel free to debate in the comment sections below.
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