Attention, new search ecosystem ahead.

Before the advent of the World Wide Web (WWW) and graphic browsers like Mosaic, the internet landscape included tools like WAIS and other browsers such as Gopher and Lynx. In 1990, shortly after the WWW emerged, Archie made its debut. During my involvement at NSCA Urbana (IL) in the creation of the first HTTP server (later known as Apache), data was solely associated with filenames rather than content. One year later, Tim Berners-Lee developed a virtual library aimed at assisting users in locating URLs for various websites. This library was initially hosted on CERN webservers during the nascent stages of the internet.

During the 1990s, Netscape, Yahoo, Lycos, and Altavista emerged, with Google officially launching in 1998, thanks to investments from Sequoia and its adoption by AOL as its primary search engine.

Currently, Google commands 90% of the search market and search contributes to over half of Alphabet’s revenue. However, a transformation is underway.

Search algorithms and the advertisements they generate, as well as page views, are evolving. Each search generates substantial economic activity, prompting businesses and professionals to strategize ways to direct traffic to websites, whether through paid means or search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. AI-driven and personalized search experiences are supplanting traditional methods of information retrieval, reshaping the landscape of online discovery.

Numerous startups are attempting to revolutionize search by employing generative models to analyze and condense search results immediately upon users' queries. Perplexity, a prominent player in this arena, achieved unicorn status in April following a successful funding round of $62.7 million. You.com, as indicated on its website, plans to recruit research scientists with backgrounds from Salesforce and Stanford, other companies include Andi, Brave AI, Twelve Labs, Elicit, and Phind.

This Monday, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT 4.0, showcasing its abilities in language translation, expression interpretation, and voice tone adjustment. The following day, Google revealed Veo and Project Astra, utilizing smartphone-captured video and voice recognition to provide contextual answers to inquiries. These advancements extend to more intricate search queries, such as trip planning or dietary planning.

Search functionality is rapidly evolving to embrace personalization, multimodality, and intuitiveness. However, the restructuring of all ecosystems is necessary to accommodate these changes, professionals engaged in search and SEO may need to reconsider their approach to their field.