On-Site Search Trends To Watch For In 2019
January 01, 2019
2019 is going to be an exciting year for advances in on-site search technology. As much progress as the industry has made, developments in the near future are sure to propel search functionality into a new frontier, transforming what was impossible to achieve just a few years ago, into a reality tomorrow. Here are some critical areas of site search development that will play a leading role in 2019.
Natural Voice Processing
Nearly everyone by now who has an iPhone has summoned Siri and asked very basic questions, such as “Find nearest pizza shop” of “Italian Food near me”. While the technology that allows for this kind of interaction with smart phones is impressive, advances in Natural Voice Processing (NVP) will soon change how we communicate with computers, websites and other devices. The goal of NVP is to develop a communication style between people and computers that is a lot less choppy and more warm and conversational. With regard to on-site search technology, NVP will allow site visitors to naturally verbalize exactly what they are looking for, in the natural way in which they speak. From this, the search tool will not only understand the shopper’s full sentences, but also return search results that are extremely relevant to the visitor’s request. The impact that NVP will have upon on-site search is predicted to be substantial. Estimates are that natural voice processing will increase conversion rates 2-3 times over conventional searching methods.Visual Search
Visual search empowers site visitors to search for what they want to purchase by utilizing images. Many people think that visual search technology is new but it actually can trace its origins back to over 10 years ago. The foundation of visual search is recognition software and artificial intelligence. Many social media users engage with recognition software already, as the technology is widely used on such sites as Facebook.Visual Search can help internet shoppers in a number of interesting ways:
- Such items as jewelry, clothing or fashion related products are sometimes hard to put into words accurately. A search for such items with the help of an image can play an important role in maintaining quality search results for shoppers.
- People will often see a product that appeals to them, but not be able to recall its name or manufacturer. The option of being able to upload an image to identify it is a real time saver.
- There is a real convenience factor that comes with visual search. Shoppers on the go would much rather prefer to search with an image, rather than typing words into a search box.
Voice Search
Voice search technology is another up and coming way to search for products and services that is often cited to be a lot more convenient, as compared to using a key board and the search box. Many people are accustomed to using voice search on their smart phones for such things as directions or to find the closest store they need, but this technology is increasingly becoming more prevalent as a search tool on both ecommerce and information based websites. Many online shoppers and site marketers feel that there are several distinct advantages of voice search.- Fits well into peoples’ busy schedules, who do not always want to take the time to sit down at a computer and conduct a search in the traditional way.
- Gives shoppers the ability to still receive personalized and relevant search results by using their natural speech patterns.
- Gives online retailers an additional way (access point) for shoppers to search their site.
- Can be used in both B2C and B2B applications.