Never Too Early: 2017 Search Trends to Look Out For With Amazon’s AI
One of the essential aspects of being an SEO is never being complacent or happy with things are. No matter how many links you’ve earned, how much traffic you’ve driven, there are always those out there who are getting more. It is this restlessness that makes SEO a hotbed for trend forecasting and prediction making, and this week we’re going to get a head start on the new year by looking at the increasing rise of Voice UI and Intelligent Assitants like Amazon’s Echo device.
While Amazon has been ferociously marketing the Echo for a better part of a year, Consume Index Research partners recently declared that there have been three million sales of the Echo so far. Echo utilizes Amazon’s cloud-based AI “Alexa” to answer questions, play music or games, control other smart devices around the home, and obviously, it re-orders directly from Amazon Prime. Perhaps more promising than the sales figures is the increase in awareness of the Echo, with CIRP reporting that such awareness doubled last year between March, when it was at 20%, and the end of year when it exceeded 50%.
In the process of selling so many devices, Echo might have become the de facto icon of the coming rise of AI, machine learning, and voice UI. But it is hardly the only new tool helping to usher in these new search trends. Last week we took an up-close look at RankBrain, Google’s machine learning ranking factor, and it’s clear that machine learning is only going to become more omnipresent.
But with Amazon’s cloud-based AI, Alexa, and Echo providing the framework, thousands of developers are expected to join the fray and start creating software and products for the Alexa framework as it becomes more robust. Amazon isn’t the only one if the game, of course, with Google’s Google Assistant and Google Home, Apple’s Siri, and Microsoft’s Cortana are offering similar voice-activated assistants.
Indeed, going forward it’s clear that the next step is to see how Amazon and its competitors can further integrate these virtual assistants to the different facets of a person’s life, from their music and gaming systems to smart devices to cars like the Ford SYNC. As this will lead to even more voice searches, it’s paramount for SEOs to stay aware of these developments and continue to optimize for vocal search.
