Circle, Squiggle or Highlight - New mobile searches in Kent

Another peice of the puzzle will soon be on the table

Voice search is growing at an ever increasing pace and is predicted to claim over 50% of the global search market by the end of this decade. Google SGE (AI assisted search) is now active in 120 countries and expected in the UK by Spring 2024. Google Multisearch is already using AI to enhance, augment and widen search capabilities within Google's Mobile App.

Search – Going in circles?

The end of January saw yet another way to answer questions using Google's new "Circle to Search" feature. Android users across a growing range of phone models will be able to circle, squiggle on or highlight items of interest, to return a page full of ideas related to the selected image area or captured text.

Early online reviews seem positive so it's fair to assume it will be a winner and become standard issue for the majority of new mobile devices over the coming months.

Looking at the bigger picture

How could this change affect local searches for Kent businesses? Will it lessen the effectiveness of keywords in search and increase the relevance of images? Will the selection, generation and optimisation of images take on a new relevance over the coming months? Will designers, marketers and SEO gurus begin to create "circle bait" within images, in the hope of featuring more prominently in the results that Google generates?

With the future of SEO entering a state of ever increasing disruption the only constant as ever is change. The rate of this change is accelerating and it's path in early 2024 remains exciting, but uncertain.

I'll be updating this post as work on the jigsaw puzzle of 2024 search progresses.

In the meantime our advice for businesses that want to take advantage is to be attentive, informed, nimble and get ready to adapt.

Google Circle to Search on YouTube