Any SEO Psychics in the House?

At SMX East this month, a panel full of big-name search experts took part in a roundtable discussion centered around critical, forward-looking questions posed by Search Engine Land’s Chris Sherman.

• Where’s the search industry today?
• Is there even “traditional” media anymore? What kinds of needs do you see larger brands having?
• Is Twitter a flash in the plan? Any thoughts on social media’s place going forward?
• With more narrow and precise targeting options, we’re starting to see some backlash. A study from UC Berkley found that more than 60 percent of participants felt that targeted ads weren’t okay. Are we going to be able to take advantage of these sophisticated technologies?
• The emergence of Bing and Bing’s partnership with Yahoo are among the biggest changes in search. How’s having two players rather than three going to change our space?
• If we came back in five years, what would we be talking about?

After attending and liveblogging the panel, What’s Next in Search: the Bigwig Crystal Ball Panel, I got to thinking about the evolution of search, how it became what it is today, and, in the ever-fluctuating space, where it might be in five years.

So I thought I’d ask a couple of the most tuned-in experts I know these very same questions. Today on SEM Synergy, Bruce Clay and Susan Esparza answer the series of questions that were asked of the Bigwig panel. And their answers really opened my eyes to a picture of what search can and may become in the not-so-distant future.

These are concepts that directly affect many of our livelihoods, and I’m sure you’ve all considered these issues at one point or another. So in the name of growth and revelation, I thought I’d ask you to add your thoughts to the conversation as well.

I thought of creating a poll, but with such open ended questions it would be impossible to contain all possible responses in a series of multiple choice answers. I thought of creating a survey, but burdening people with a survey is not what I’m looking to do. Instead, I thought an open conversation would be best served through comments on this post.

If any of these questions ignite your passion or get you thinking, please share your thoughts in the comments. You can check out the liveblog coverage for the panelists’ answers and today’s episode of SEM Synergy for Bruce’s response. I can’t wait to find out your predictions and to start piecing together a forecast for the future of online search and SEO.

Update:

Staring at the open-ended questions above, I realized it might be easier to get feedback on the individual responses that have been offered up already. So I’ve rounded up the answers from the original panelists along with Bruce and Susan (all paraphrased, mind you). Read them over and vote for all the answers you agree with it. Or, fill in the blank if your answer isn’t represented.

Here are the panelists:

Greg Boser, President and CEO, 3 Dog Media
Andrew Goodman, Founder and Principal, Page Zero Media
Sara Holoubek, Consultant, Columnist and SEMPO Board of Directors,
Jack Menzel, Group Product Manager, Google
Kristine Segrist, Search Managing Director of MEC Interaction, GroupM Search
Julie Sun, Director, Digital Marketing, MTV

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.