You’re standing on a street corner and, without you searching, your smartphone serves up today’s special at a nearby Japanese restaurant. That vision of “contextual discovery” — a new way for businesses and customers to interact — is increasingly being emphasized by Google, most recently by Vice President of Consumer Products Marissa Mayer on Wednesday.
At the Le Web conference in Paris, Mayer said the search giant has “a couple of things we’re experimenting with,” which will be out in 2011. The key concept, she said, is to let users find “what they want without them actually searching for anything,” such as by using their location “as a piece of context.”
‘A Virtual Mirror’
Stores, museums, theaters and other businesses or attractions would automatically send messages, ads, menus, promos or other enticements to a user. In addition to location, this “serendipitous search” could also get contextual hints from a user’s posted profile, web-searching habits, or other factors.
“We’re trying to build a virtual mirror of the world at all times,” she told news media. The main idea is that some information is pushed to people about things they want, like or need, and especially at times when they can best use it.
Mayer also noted that, in addition to other issues, the user interface is a “challenge.” She said her team is working on interface solutions, which could include a panel in one corner of a smartphone. Mobile devices are the key target here, since the place-based information could more easily be acted upon if you’re standing near the advertiser’s place of business.
In September, CEO Eric Schmidt similarly laid out a vision for what he called “autonomous search,” where Google knows enough about users’ preferences, interests and location to provide information without the user having to find it. He positioned Google Instant’s predictive search…