At the risk of being presumptious, I would classify searches into broadly two categories:
1) Finding good providers/discussion places regarding something you need, say news, goods, experiences etc
2) Finding more info about a specific piece of content/goods . Eg: Product reviews, solutions to some technical doubts etc
For most people I know, 1) is pretty much sorted. They have a list of places they check for clothes, groceries, jobs etc. News is read from specific websites/apps. Reddit/HN/Fb/Twitter provide most the social interaction and discovery aspects.
2) is where I see Google providing much more value. But the way things are proceeding, most of the top links relevant to a google search are generally from aggregators themselves. Amazon for most ecommerce, Tripadvisor for travel, Stackoverflow for tech, Practo (in India) for doctors etc.
Let's assume Stackoverflow introduces points for using (and help 'improving') their own search. Most people will open stackoverflow first before searching on google. Amazon has already achieved this level for most things related to e-comm (specially less expensive products).
There will still be a market for Google ofcourse, but it will be a much smaller chunk than currently being predicted.
I actually stumbled across this line of reasoning when somebody asked me if its a good idea for individual service providers (docs/merchants etc) to open their own websites. For 99% of them it isn't.
At the risk of being presumptious, I would classify searches into broadly two categories:
1) Finding good providers/discussion places regarding something you need, say news, goods, experiences etc
2) Finding more info about a specific piece of content/goods . Eg: Product reviews, solutions to some technical doubts etc
For most people I know, 1) is pretty much sorted. They have a list of places they check for clothes, groceries, jobs etc. News is read from specific websites/apps. Reddit/HN/Fb/Twitter provide most the social interaction and discovery aspects.
2) is where I see Google providing much more value. But the way things are proceeding, most of the top links relevant to a google search are generally from aggregators themselves. Amazon for most ecommerce, Tripadvisor for travel, Stackoverflow for tech, Practo (in India) for doctors etc.
Let's assume Stackoverflow introduces points for using (and help 'improving') their own search. Most people will open stackoverflow first before searching on google. Amazon has already achieved this level for most things related to e-comm (specially less expensive products).
There will still be a market for Google ofcourse, but it will be a much smaller chunk than currently being predicted.
I actually stumbled across this line of reasoning when somebody asked me if its a good idea for individual service providers (docs/merchants etc) to open their own websites. For 99% of them it isn't.
Ofcourse, any counter comments are welcome!