Justin Freid says, “There is no doubt the search industry has evolved. Just one look at how search engine results pages are currently laid out shows how things have changed. We have come a long way from 10 blue links.

But have we gone far enough? At SXSW earlier this month, information access was a hot topic. People no longer head to Google’s search bar as their only way of accessing content.

How we access information is changing

Search engines used to be the primary (or sole) place a consumer would turn to when they needed an immediate answer. You entered in a phrase, clicked a link and read the page.

But now, there are other places we are spending out time. In fact, the average consumer spends over 40 minutes a day on YouTube and 35 minutes on Facebook. We get our news from peers on social networks and can even consult WebMD about our health through Amazon’s Alexa AI.

Most recently, Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, called Amazon the biggest threat to Google. When you think about it, if you are past research mode and want to buy something immediately, you will often bypass Google and head directly to Amazon”.

How AI will shape the future of search

Search Engine Land

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