Or will they? That’s the question I’ve been asking myself lately. Web experts like Jakob Nielson and Donald Norman seem to think the way we search for information will remain largely the same. Nielson, however, explains in an article by Search Engine Land that he doesn’t think search engine optimization services offered by Web development companies will be sufficient enough to get to the top of search engines like Google. He goes on to talk about how SER (search engine results) will probably be organized by what Google deems the most informative or helpful resources rather than positioning websites by the number of keywords stuffed into a title tag.

Something I thought was interesting was that Jakob is leaning more towards the ideology of behavior based SER. Hmm…Let’s ponder that for a moment. So, are you telling me that where and what I click on while I’m visiting a website will be captured by search engines in some fashion? This brings up another point which I won’t write much about right now, but by far, Google is dominating in the realm of search engine usage. Millions of us are using Google Analytics, chances are your site is using them right now. Analytics is a very powerful utility for your website and for Google. Why Google you ask? Because Google is saving all of this information!

If they wanted to switch gears tomorrow and change the face of the search engine world they could do it because they have all the information to back it up. That’s why behavior based SER is such a high possibility. Google knows where you’re clicking, reading, leaving, etc. Using this data they could monopolize the entire market by being the one search engine to display search engine results this way.

Would they monopolize the market? I don’t think so and I’ll tell you why. From a corporate standpoint, the information their collecting would be an extremely hot commodity and many of their competitors would pay a substantial price to see the information they’ve collected over the years. I’m not certain if that would qualify it to be unethical or not, but it’s definitely leaning towards the other side of the fence. As long as Googles terms and conditions mentions their data collecting policy they can do almost anything they want.

It’s not like they’re taking over the world…or are they?

What started as an obscure micro-blogging website that people used to just detail things going on their daily lives has caught fire and hit the mainstream. Nowadays, you’ll hear the word Twitter uttered multiple times per day, whether on the radio, on the local news as a tool to gather answers from their listeners, or even (in Amazon’s case) cause me to spend too much money on fantastic deals via Twitter-only coupon codes.

I should really stop following Amazon’s Twitter.

(and if you’re looking for more details about how Twitter works, then check out one of my earlier posts)

Regardless, this post is about you and whether Twitter can help your business. What can you do to test the waters?

My first recommendation is checking out Twitter’s really powerful search functionality. Put in a word or two and you’ll find real-time “tweets” that include your keyword. Check out the traffic behind keywords that describe your business. If you’re seeing a lot of questions, or pleas for help, then don’t hesitate; sign up and provide those looking for answers with knowledge and they may follow you or check out your website.

And really the best advice is to jump in feet first. Sign up and tweet regularly - but not too often. You can look like a spam account or just bug potential followers with the amount of noise you put out. “Tweet” regularly, search for potential opportunities to promote your business, and if the number of people following you steadily increases, then it’s well worth your time.

And if it turns out to not be worth your time, at least you gave the latest and greatest social media phenomenon a try. And probably bought some awesome gadgets on sale from Amazon in the process.