It all began with text search which is still, by far the lion's share. Soon, rapid evolving technology offered audio search, video search, book search, location search ... today, search engine technology has even 'captured' local hard disk searches! While technological developments will be endless, it is the growing acceptance of paid searches, that promises to usher the era of e-commerce.

Consumption Local, Search Engine Global
Google deserves the major credit for Internet search engine concepts & technology. What started as an almost eclectic function for gathering knowledge has today evolved into a default habit for searching everything under the sun! With such a large presence, it is but natural to expect competition. So, over the past few years, the search engine domain has attracted a number of major players like Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL along with a large number of smaller search engine specialists like AskJeeves to become Google's competitors.

A couple of years ago, Google & other search engines realized the commercial potential of search engines. To put it very simply, search results could be displayed to favour one product marketer over another, by displaying results "preferentially". Since people had already begun to rely more & more on search engines, seeing a particular marketer's brand or service on the top would naturally influence the search engine consumer's decision. Marketers would pay for a set of keywords which was relevant to their brand / service. The search engine would ensure that the search results for those keywords would display the brand / service prominently. This practice of "selling" keywords to online marketers evolved into the complex business of paid searches.

Today, savvy online marketers routinely bid for keywords with Search Engines - to ensure that the consumer 'sees' their brands/services.

Paid Searches for Online Marketing
It may have started as a negotiation with Google for a set of keywords. But today, managing paid search campaigns is no more a question of just visiting the Google web site, creating an account, paying up the fees and selecting the keywords. Because, to begin with, Google is not enough - you need to consider Yahoo!, AskJeeves, and soon, MSN, AOL, Amazon and a number of smaler players. (The list seems to be getting longer every month!)

Then of course, keeping up with the ever expanding keywords is in itself no mean task. And because each search engine insists on its own bidding rules for key words (which it changes regularly), the business of managing keywords has become even more complex.

Complexities of Paid Searches
There are currently 3 major auction platforms (Google, Yahoo!, AskJeeves) with MSN launching soon and other major players like AOL on the verge. Of course there are a number of smaller players also. Even though all paid searches are basically keyword auctions, each platform requires a different strategy.

Meanwhile, keywords keep expanding - along with bid prices! Online marketers are forced to expand their keyword set to ensure effective sales conversion. Today's average paid search campaign starts with a minimum of 500 - 1,000 keywords. The complexity of a paid search campaign being (naturally) proportional to the number of keywords, there is a growing need for sophisticated software tools.

The obviously large combinations of keywords coupled with multiple platforms make it difficult to manage manually. Especially because paid search campaigns are based on 'web-site based bids' rather than personal negotiations. (Try deciding a bid price for 1,000 keywords on a weekly/fortnightly/monthly basis where the "highest bidder wins" without any negotiations! All on a regular basis, with bids to be renewed periodically.)

Any wonder that there are a number of new firms introducing new bid management tools every month?

The Future
The future of Search Engine Advertising will be defined by evolving search engine technology. For example, "Predictive Search" technology promises to allow advertisers in one field of business to promote their website using keywords that are "connected" to a prospective customers' search. (Example: "flowers" could be connected with "greeting cards".)

Clearly, as more consumers go online, it is clear that search engines will play an increasing role in influencing them.