A New Era Of Search Is About The Answers, Not Just The Links

I guess he hasn't noticed that Google has these things today. Of course homepage, address, phone number, and star rating are there, but there's a lot more too. Map? Check. Hours? Check. Directions? Check. Reviews from Yelp, CitySearch, etc? Check. Tweets from your friends? Check. That's all right on the results page, and of course with instant search you don't even have to press enter to see it. Photos, related places, and links to reservations on OpenTable are one click away on the place page.

I doubt that the page of links will go away anytime soon. For restaurant addresses and other highly focused searches that rely on public information, that works. However, content creators will fight you mightily if you as a search engine want to use their copyrighted content to generate your own content. What's in it for them, if you provide the answer to the customer and take them out of the loop?

And this now implies that you become more than a traditional search company, you become a content company. That's no easy feat either.

It's definitely much better to provide links relevant to the phrase for users to identity the right answer, instead of giving an irrelevant one.