With the swell of alternative forms of chat media will search engine advertising and optimisation of internet sites become obsolete?

Recent developments in the way we communicate through the Internet have been less about habitual broadcast media and more about interactive, two way communication. As this type of communication develops it will undoubtedly affect the way search engines operate and by default the process of Online Marketing.

Historic media “broadcasts” a message to the proposed audience, whether it is in the form of a newspaper or an commercial (physical or digital) which exposes the reader, listener or watcher to a point. The communication is one way and the planned audience is advised of something, in essence “talked at”.

Customary methods of Online Marketing carried out by the marketing sector and of late the relatively new idea of Search Engine Optimisation companies (SEO Company) are targeted at the way that Google (predominantly) accesses web pages. This is a kind of broadcast media not too unlike to a newspaper albeit with digital trickery to make the occurance more interesting.

Is this all about to change? Are the accepted Search Engine Placement services about to become less valuable? Assuming the internet continues to develop along the same lines as it has for the last 10 years, we can expect to see the use of the web becoming more implanted in our day to day real time lives. It will develop into more of a delivery platform as opposed to an information source, a concierge as opposed to a librarian. If we are accessing the net in real time that bond will become two way and transactional, broadcast techniques will offer a one-dimentional experience and become obsolete.

Once a buyer can engage with the seller of the product or service through two way communication merely reading a website will be less than rewarding. At this point usual Search Engine Placement services become obsolete and Online Marketing becomes about making connections not identifying content.

The clever Search Engine Optimization Company will be looking at how that interaction can take place in an environment that is so full with information. If at all possible, a buyer is exposed to a seller (or a number of sellers) in an environment where he can dynamically interrogate and compare their offering, ask for detail and maybe even tailor the product or service to his needs before he makes the choice to buy.

Instead of offering website optimisation for a static broadcast, online marketing may be about promoting associations and may take place on Twitter, chatrooms, forums even within games where product placement is already beginning to happen.