Will Google's search dominance be challenged ?

[Whitey]

I had one of those lightbulb moments the other day and reversed about 20 years into the past.

For months I've been watching the growth of phone applications in the location based e-commerce sector and dismissing them as having " no chance " versus desktop Google search.

Then i thought - well have a go and see what you think. I did.

- The phone application asked and knew where i was located.
- It provided me with deals in the area
- It then gave me the option to order via the phone, or provided me with a phone number that i could touch call and get direct to a customer service operator . Wow - a real person !

So I called , and the service was fantastic , the price was great , they sent the receipt to my phone all in less than the time to book online.

They gave me a choice to have the product delivered, or directions to where i could pick it up , all linked to my phone GPS.

I was blown away with the speed and convenience of things.

Are key search verticals on Google going to struggle to match the service this type of good old fashioned phone service can provide , with the Telco's.

Should we be gearing up for a different and rapidly changing future for e-commerce based on telephone related service rather than search and website based service .

[louieramos]

Google is already way ahead of the competition, I bet they already have plans or similar service in place ready to be implemented.

These specific search services with real person cannot survive the mainstream (when the demand goes high) because of the lack of manpower and funds. Smart automated search services will always be the key and I am pretty sure Google is working on that, some company can challenge, but Google is already ahead of them.

[Whitey]

because of the lack of manpower and funds

The customer service that i received i would gladly pay for. In this case I didn't need to , but it would be well worth an extra $5-10 for the overall convenience in my case. Wouldn't that cover the cost of the additional infrastructure and labor - in this case it only took 5-10 minutes at a personally convenient moment ?

I'm convinced phone applications will remove a lot of reliance on search. And the possibilities of distribution are more diverse than Google search currently offers via different phone providers, telco's and strong brand names.

In my view it's all about the buckets of " search / research" versus " brand / convenience " .

The average modern search user doesn't look for very much these days - they know what they want. Why would they need to rely on search so much ? It's all about social networking & phone devices = convenience.

Most people don't want to restrict themselves to sitting behind a desktop or clumsy laptop if they can avoid it with easier methods.

And social interaction isn't limited to Facebook type applications. People want to interact person to person. So the convergence of phone may come back - look at all the things it can do that a search focus can't.

I think Google search is going to be well balanced with the phone onslaught .....

.... and I'm not sure Google can have all the answers