The Future of Search is Spoken

Dessa Brennan
Jul 10, 2017 · 3 min read

Google made it so that the game of the internet is played by their rules. Their algorithm. Content powers this.

But what if the playing field changes and the rules are rewritten?

Could it be what Amazon is attempting to do?

I think it’s no coincidence that on Prime Day Alexa devices are deeply discounted.

This is the hardware that Amazon sees as the hub for all e-commerce activity, and then some. It’s part data collection, part sales generator, and part advertising platform.

Today, if you have specific intention to do, know, go, or buy something then you likely type a search into Google.

Tomorrow, Amazon wants all of us to speak into Alexa devices as much as we type into Google.

If there comes a day where we end up speaking and getting what we want faster and more accurate than if we were to type it. Well then, speaking as a mode of search outpaces typed searches.

Google knows this. Apple does too. It’s why Google Home exists. It’s why Apple is launching it’s own version.

To be fair, I’m not sure how this all works. Two years ago when I spoke with an Amazon marketing rep, I asked the question about how to get my client’s brand integrated into Alexa skills. I envisioned a function where by asking Alexa how to make a Manhattan cocktail that my client’s bourbon would be the recommended brand. Amazon did not know how to respond to this question at the time. I’m curious if they do now.

How does brand integration work now into the Alexa responses (what they call skills). How will it work in the future?

ROI in marketing is more clear cut than it’s ever been. Attribution will in theory become easier if more of what we searched is linked to how we spend.

For those reasons, if we continue to speak to hardware to do more in a faster, more convenient ways, then talk will outpace type.

As a result, there will be a new bidding platform for the spoken word.

I have several questions:

  • How will Siri and Alexa determine what information to give to us?
  • Will there be a method for influencing their responses to our questions?
  • How will this new speak to search playground impact content development?
  • Will there be a new type of bidding war for rank, and race to create new content specific for these devices?
  • Will the type of content we create need to shift to more audio than written?
  • Or will these devices, and their software speak according to what’s already indexed on the internet according to the rules we know and live by today?

The next frontier, and billion dollar plus, ad ecosystem isn’t the next Facebook. It’s within the spoken word, and how it will be disseminated across connected hardware.

Alexa devices. Google Home. Apple‘s version of the two. These will become the new interfaces for search. The new marketplaces for advertisers. Talk and you will receive.

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