Where do you see the search industry heading in the future? SEOs and SEMs are notorious for asking this question, since the industry changes so rapidly. As a result of both user and technology advances, the industry must constantly be looking forward in order to be effective in current efforts.

Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts relates the Law of Accelerating Returns to the future of search. Humans think linearly and cannot, therefore, discern their placement on the earth at all times. As a result, the human perception of the future of technology is not entirely accurate. In other words, technology in the future will advance to a much greater level than what humans can currently comprehend.

In applying the law, Spencer says we will see more of the Linguistic User Interface (LUI) and predicts a big shift in transitioning from the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the LUI. He describes the future interaction with a computer to consist of conversing with an animated personality as opposed to working with a keyboard.

According to Spencer, SEO will evolve with this technology. He believes it will become more metric-oriented but the metrics must also be directly connected to specific actions. As for SEO consultants, he anticipates that they will be similar to existing Web analytics experts.

Do you agree with Stephan Spencer’s predictions for the future of search? To learn more about his predictions, check out his full explanation here.