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 Search Engine Opimization Blog So Google bought Aardvark, but what does that mean for Internet Marketing?
Thursday, 29 April 2010 07:41
So Google bought Aardvark, but what does that mean for Internet Marketing?Written by Dr Peter Fish Earlier this year Google bought Aardvark, a 3-year old social answer engine. This brings about a whole blog entry worth of questions! So just like Aardvark, I’m gonna try answer them for you!What the hell is a social answer engine? It’s kind of like a search engine, but it’s centred on getting you the answers to your questions, but with a twist – it doesn’t pull the answer from existing online content, it actually asks a number of very carefully chosen human beings. Aardvark uses a carefully designed algorithm to decide which human being in your virtual social sphere might give you the most relevant answer to a question and it asks them. Literally – it sends a number of intelligently selected individuals an instant message and asks them! What type of questions? Very personal and specific questions, like... Cindy asks “What’s the best cocktail at Cafe Caprice in Cape Town?” This is a highly specific question and not a common one, so the chances of you finding the answer in the, albeit, massive amount of data already existing on the web is slim. And if you do, the chance of it being relevant to you at this exact time is miniscule! What is a relevant answer? This is really the selling point... In order to give you a relevant answer Aardvark first has to know who’s asking it. And I don’t just mean her name, I mean: what are her demographics, interests, taste preferences, maybe even what personality type she has, what deeper psychology does her social profile project. Do you see the 2nd dimension? A 21 year old, female, law student, grew up in Randburg, Johannesburg, but now lives in Cape Town in the UCT Residence, likes avo, tequila, Snow Patrol, cats and is often happy. 3rd dimension? Place: Cafe Caprice, Cape Town. And even still the 4th dimension? Time: Now! Recently. So who does it ask? As soon as you sign up with your social media details it gets to know you, which is a friendlier way of saying it analysis you. And when you pose a question it uses all for dimensions above to decide who might give you the best answer, it’ll be someone with similar demographics and tastes, who went to venue only last week and has “Sunset cocktails at Caprice” listed in her interests. Why would it ask her? Because she probably knows which cocktail Cindy would like at Caprice today! Sounds nice in theory, but does it actually work? To be honest I doubt it does at the moment, but it might gain some momentum. I can’t find any usage stats, but from what I did find, the average question is 19 words long (!), of which 85% are answered, with 70% of the answers rated positively. That is pretty impressive. Why the hell did Google spend its “hard” earned money on a social answers engine? Does Google want to integrate Aardvark into its social platforms? Maybe. Or maybe Google just wants another way into people’s Facebook accounts. Possible, but I think they might just have been after the profile analysing algorithms. The latest stats are that 1 in 5 Google searches are customised. How do you give better results? Understand the searcher. Here’s the question internet marketers want to know: What does this mean and how do we use it??? It merely re-enforces what we know, the world wide web is getting more and more personal and if you want to wield it your way, target all your sites very carefully, personalise them, work on visitor experience and loyalty. The more people you have on your side of the fence the better. Social reinforcement is the answer! With this in mind, think long and hard about Facebook’s Social Plugins and other methods of social media marketing. Start building your fan base ASAP!
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Dr Peter FishDr Peter Fish holds a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Genetics, Biochemistry and Immunology and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. He has been involved in internet strategy and marketing since 2000 and is an expert on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine friendly design, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Google AdWords and Google Analytics. Website: www.gofishclientcatchers.com E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view itLatest from Dr Peter Fish
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