Influx

John Battelle is widely recognized as one of the foremost experts on the business of Internet search. He has just completed the a book chronicling Google’s rise to power “The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture.” John was a co-founder of Wired and a founder of The Industry Standard.

Influx was fortunate enough to interview John and ask him a few questions about the future of search, the importance of community and branding.

Looking ahead to the next couple of years, how do you believe search will have evolved?

First, I think search will be everywhere, on all things. In other words, search will become the defacto navigational tool for your mobile phone, your music player, your automobile, and of course your PC. We’ll all be getting – slowly – more sophisticated is using advanced search tools to help us organize and find information, but not because we’re trying harder – but rather because search services themselves will be more sophisticated, more likely to know who you are and what you are looking for in context.

How important is branding in the search space? Is it branding as we know it or something else?

I think it’s crucial. In folks’ minds, you are whatever the first few results say you are in Google. That’s brand. That means you need to think about what happens when people type your brand name, or your company name, or your own name into that blank box. If you don’t have a strategy for that – both paid and organic – you are not taking your brand seriously.

Secondly, folks say search is a terrible environment to do branding. That’s changing in a number of ways. First, platforms like Google and Yahoo are beginning to offer site specific and image-based advertising. And further, search is how you are found, so ensuring the experience is a good one is a major piece of your branding strategy. Is it easy to find you? Once a searcher lands on your site, is the experience consistent with your brand?

What do you feel about media giants like News Corp getting serious about community?

Community, as trite as the word sounds, is at the heart of all great media. It’s about an exchange, a conversation, a connection. I think getting serious about it means they are paying attention to the right thing. What says community more than a local newspaper, after all, which is where Newscorp has its roots.

What three lessons can any enterprising young start-up learn from Google?

Focus, focus and focus. And pick your partners wisely.