According to Al Hilwa, an analyst with IDC, this split functionality will greatly increase speed, which is important since Amazon’s motive is content-based. He told us that it made perfect sense for Amazon to make this move.

Hilwa also indicated that other browsers such as Chrome could potentially follow suit with similar offerings. So, is Amazon Silk a browser revolution, or is it too soon to say?

In this interview with WebProNews, Dan Zarrella of Hubspot discusses a few of the issues that people are having with social and what they can do about them. For starters, people are always raising questions about measuring social media efforts.

“When you’re talking about social media analytics and measuring social media, it’s really important to be accurate, [and it's] not so important to be precise,” said Zarrella.

For example, most of the tools for getting positive or negative feedback about a brand are 50-60 percent accurate. If you are using one of these tools for specifically fleshing out the bad tweets about your brand, you’re only going to get a little more than half of them. Zarrella calls this form of measuring precision.

With accuracy, on the other hand, he points out that you can look at trends. For instance, if you look at the baseline of positive tweets and the baseline of negative tweets, you can measure increases and decreases.

Also regarding data, Zarrella emphasizes the importance of digging into the data and finding out what it means. There is a group in the social media industry, which he calls the “unicorns and rainbows,” that tend to constantly push engagement, value, quality, and other buzzwords.

While these areas are important, he said that the tactics around them are only based on what feels good. This group doesn’t encourage people to call themselves gurus or experts. However, Zarrella has found that, according to the data, people that do identify themselves as an authority on Twitter have more followers. For this reason, he believes people should get into the data and act on what it implies.

In addition, Zarrella discusses Facebook and how people don’t have to be concerned with the continuous changes as long as they are geting the basics right.

The technical side of neuromarketing involves brain scans and the actually measuring of what goes on inside a consumer’s head. It then analyzes the data in a way that identifies how the consumer responds to advertising and marketing messages.

The other side of neuromarketing is the more practical side for small businesses and involves behavioral science. This part looks at why consumers do what they do.

Because of neuromarketing, Dooley said that focus groups are essentially a thing of the past. He goes on to say that they tend to bring about misleading results since they are not able to get into the subconscious behavior of consumers.

“The vast majority of our mental processes and our decision-making are not part of our conscious awareness,” he said.

Since neuromarketing analyzes behaviors of the brain, many consumers have expressed concerns about it. They often equate it to “mind-reading” and are afraid that marketers will create “super ads” from that information.

However, Dooley believes that these concerns are “misplaced” and “overblown.” He said that even with better market research, it is very unlikely that any “super ad” could ever be created.

Although, at this point, large consumer companies are primarily the only companies that can conduct neuromarketing experiments, there are still opportunities for small businesses. On Dooley’s blog, he offers practical information from neuromarketing studies that any marketer could apply to his campaign.

To learn more about this new form of marketing, check out his blog.

One change Blum addresses is Google’s AdRank algorithm. He says this is a metric that is equal to the product of what you are wiling to pay. In other words, it is your maximum bid and quality score.

Problems arise because it is possible that users could have multiple keywords for the same quality score, which would prompt the same query. This means that you could be competing with yourself and, ultimately, increasing what you have to pay.

According to Blum, an ideal ad combination exists, but you have to find it through research and analysis. Once you find it, he says you can force impressions to go the right keyword ad combination through siloing. In the end, your cost-per-click (CPC) will go down, as your click-through-rate (CTR) goes up.

To do this, Blum advises advertisers to have organized accounts with relevant ad groups. He again stresses the importance of having the right keyword ad combination. After these elements are in place, he says advertisers can utilize negative keyword applications.

In this interview, Blum also discusses the differences in accounts on PCs and mobile devices. He believes the biggest difference is in user behavior and explains how to leverage it.

Are you applying this knowledge to your ad campaigns?

Morville goes on to say how he was inspired by Christopher Alexander to look at design patterns and patterns of physical behavior. By looking at these behavior patterns that searchers have, he says it is fascinating to study how these patterns can be turned into design patterns that are solutions for very common problems.

On the subject of the future of search, Morville believes the vision of the future is the same as it was several decades ago. He says the future is artificial intelligence with a little bit of information visualization. While he foresees many things happening in the future, he does believe there is significance in location awareness and real-time.

To learn more about Morville and his ideas regarding search, check out his latest book called Search Patterns.

Norvig also discusses the search engine’s famous PageRank and how it is often misinterpreted. As he explains to WebProNews, PageRank is a technical formula that is a way to evaluate links between pages. However, he quickly points out, “That’s just one component of how we rank the pages…”

In addition, Google wants to understand what the pages, images, and video across the Web are talking about. It wants to connect people, places, and companies not only in a hyperlink way, but also in a way that connects these items with objects in the real world.

Mike McDonald of WPN also asks Norvig about Google’s stance on consolidating formats. Since users can distribute content through Email, Twitter, Blogs, Google Buzz, and many other outlets, will these distribution channels ever consolidate?

Norvig says the Web is structured in a way that gives users multiple options. He goes on to say that we are starting to see “bridges” such as a retweet, which allows users to take media off of one page and publish it on another media outlet. From this model, he believes the best aspects will evolve and form into new formats.

What are your thoughts on these trends and how they affect users?

When we look at the future of search, we must also look at the history of search. In the early days, the technology did not deliver relevant results for users. But now the technology has caught up. As a result, the user is now doing more specific, longer tail searches and is still getting relevant results.

Moving into the future of search, will the users or technology change? Up to this point, Goodman says that the technology has been changing. In regards to the future, he says, “Technology is going to be driving what are some changes as far as user behavior goes, or where you might go.”

On the searcher side, where users search is another influencing factor in the future of search. Although searches within social media sites are growing, the major search engines are still the biggest drivers of search, since they power most social sites.

So, as search evolves, how will SEO change? Goodman says search engine optimization will always change but will always remain important.

How do you see searchers and technology influencing search in the future and how will SEO evolve?

First of all, there is no question that mobile is currently one of the hottest topics, since it provides users with accessibility anytime and anywhere. On the search side of mobile, Goodman explains that most searches are done at a local level; however, he expects search behavior to extend beyond that trend in the future.

He also points out that, in many cases, mobile is the only way other countries are able to access to the Web. As a result, these countries have produced many innovations. Moving forward, he believes these countries will have a strong influence on the U.S. in the area of mobile.

On the topic of retail, Goodman indicates that it is picking up after the downturn in 2008. Although small-to-medium sized businesses had an especially hard time during the recession, they are rebounding as well.

In order for the SMBs to compete successfully against large retailers, Goodman advises them to establish loyalty, quality service, and personal understanding. He says they can do this by being active in social media.

Lastly, if you haven’t heard about Chatroulette yet, you probably will see it soon, since it is a growing trend. Essentially, it is an online video streaming service that allows users to connect randomly with other users from all over the world. comScore became interested in the service when it grew from 109,000 users in January to 960,000 users in February.

Interestingly enough, males are the largest users of this trend, primarily the 18-24 year-old males. comScore data also indicates that Chatroulette is driven by college students and the unemployed. As for the future of this latest phenomenon, Goodman says, “[the] jury’s still out.”

Keep watching WebProNews for our next segment with comScore’s Eli Goodman in which he talks about the future of search and how personalization and social media will influence it.

The report from 2008 revealed that professional blogging was on the rise. This year’s report further confirmed that trend with 28 percent of bloggers calling themselves professionals and 72 percent classified as hobbyists.

One of the most surprising statistics from this year was that 40 percent of professional bloggers have worked within traditional media. Jalichandra says this stat debunks the theory that bloggers are not trained and educated.

Although bloggers blogged more this year than last, they plan on blogging even more in 2010. In addition, bloggers want to expand their business and extend their brand.

To help bloggers meet their goals, Jalichandra also announced the “new Technorati.” The new features allow bloggers to publish content directly onto Technorati, which will provide more opportunities for smaller bloggers. The company has also “built a blog directory on steroids” that includes categorical authority and allows people discover new blogs.

To learn more about the new Technorati and the 2009 State of the Blogosphere, visit Technorati.

Jenni Tafoya of comScore says the company’s mission is to “measure the digital world.” To execute that mission, the global leader provides research and information in online audience management, e-commerce, advertising, search, video, and mobile endeavors.

Ultimately, comScore allows its clients to understand and achieve success through their own business. If you would like to find out more about what comScore can do for your business, visit their website.

Both Twitter and Facebook have launched real-time search engines within their service offerings, and the major search engines are still struggling to enter the real-time search arena. Heather Dougherty, the Research Director at Hitwise, said:

“I think this [social media] will become integrated as part of search but certainly not circumvent search entirely.”

Based upon this information, it is however fair to say that social media has changed SEO permanently. According to Hitwise data, the number of visits to social networking sites exceeds the number of visits to email sites. As a result, Dougherty suggests that marketers increase their efforts with social media in order to reach their customers better.

How have your SEO efforts changed as a result of social media? What role do you see social media playing in the future of search?

The advertising market has clearly suffered during the recession and ad budgets are continuing to be cut. Therefore, media companies have had to reassess their objectives and now believe that targeted Internet marketing is the solution to their advertising woes.

But how do consumers feel about advertisers focusing more of their efforts online? According to a study conducted by the LinkedIn Research Network and Harris Interactive, it appears that consumers are not exactly thrilled with the initiative. The study found that 80 percent of the more than 2,000 consumers surveyed said online formats that extend over the page and hide content are “very frustrating.” In addition, consumers said the same about pop-up ads and ads that open once they are moused over.

Although the media companies claim to be aware of these frustrations and realize that TV-style ads are not working, how will they attempt to engage and connect with consumers in the future?

After Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s offer to buy the company last year, many people seemed to give up on the search engine. Since Carol Bartz took over the reigns at Yahoo, expectations of the company’s future have been mixed. Some view it as an impossible battle, while others view it with optimism.  Is the optimism because they think Carol will seal a deal with Microsoft or because they think she will turn the company around? Carol is initiating many changes to the company including an upcoming re-branding effort.

Next is Microsoft who recently rolled out its latest search effort: Bing. Microsoft has long wanted to compete in the search arena and hopes that Bing will allow it to do so. Although it is still too early to tell, initial data reports have been promising. Nielsen Online found that on Bing’s first day, it came close to surpassing Yahoo Search for the second spot. WebProNews spoke with Hadley Reynolds, an analyst with International Data Corporation, who said Microsoft’s biggest challenge would be getting users to switch from Google. He went on to suggest that Microsoft needed to continue to innovate the user experience if they want to grow Bing’s audience.

What does all this mean for Google? The other engines have a long way to go to catch up with Google, but does that insinuate that Google is untouchable? There have been some reports that indicate that Google and even its co-founder are slightly unnerved by Bing. Despite its vast success, Google has also been feeling heat from the government over antitrust concerns.

There are many questions regarding the future of the search engines. Although it appears that Google is not going anywhere for some time, I think we can all agree that the war among the search engines is definitely heating up.