Stephen Wolfram is a British mathematician who wrote a book called A New Kind of Science that is 1,280 pages long and touts itself as completely revolutionary.

Wolframs latest project, bold and complex as usual, is a new kind of search engine, called Wolfram Alpha. The idea is to directly answer questions input into the search box, rather than turn up search results that may answer questions, as Google does.

Although hype about Wolfram Alpha being a "Google Killer" is surely overdone, pay-per-click management firms are and should be watching closely. Wolfram Alpha and stuff like it could change pay-per-click advertising significantly, forever.

Pay-Per-Click Management Firms Secure in the Knowledge That Google Likes Money

For all the talk about beanbags, free lunches, and onsite laundry at Googles California headquarters, theres never been any doubt that Google is a for-profit enterprise that cares deeply about dollars. This has been most evident in Googles thorough development of the amazing system of pay-per-click advertising used today by so many companies to attract customers in a measurable way without paying out immeasurable amounts of money to media companies.

What if Wolfram Alpha ushers in a more academic, less profit-driven era of search? What if Wolfram Alpha catches on, but does not want money?

The concept of a venture that can make money not wanting money may seem strange, but then again, so may Stephen Wolfram. Pay-per-click optimization firms, looking at Wolfram Alpha, must confront the possibility that at some time in the future a portion of search may not be "monetizable."

Pay-Per-Click Management Firms Shouldnt Get Too Comfortable

With a system that works as well as the current pay-per-click Google juggernaut, theres a danger of complacency on the part of pay-per-click optimization firms that work within this system. Low-level thinking can mean missing out on the next big thing, whether thats Wolfram Alpha, a new and improved version of Google, or some other solution being dreamed up by a kid in the basement.

In an environment as dynamic as this pay-per-click landscape, its necessary to, pardon the expression, think out of the box. Its necessary to think about the end user, the searcher who is being targeted by pay-per-click advertisers.

On the Internet, if one searcher finds a better way to find things, one million searchers may hear about it within seconds, and give the new technology a spin.

The Search Engine of the Future May Stretch More Than a Few Brains

In the case of Wolfram Alpha or something similar, where advertising money is not a chief goal of the search engine, changes to search habits may mean that pay-per-click management firms must find ways to make sure their clients get noticed by the search engines without paying to get noticed.

Even if Wolfram Alpha never makes a dent in Googles pay-per-click performance, the exercise of thinking in terms of making sure a pay-per-click client gets noticed is what counts. The best pay-per-click optimization firms, of course, already do that 24/7/365.

Only now, with the arrival of Wolfram Alpha, these pay-per-click management theorists must match wits with Stephen Wolfram.

While thats no easy task, its certain to stretch the brain.

Sources

New York Times

ZDNet