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If ever there was an argument for why SEO is important then this is possibly it: an Ofcom study into media literacy has revealed that some kids believe sites ranked higher in search engines are more ‘truthful’!

“Among children aged 12-15 who use the internet, almost all have experience of using search engine websites (94%).

“Those who use search engine sites were shown a list of options and were asked to say which, if any, apply in terms of the way results are shown on search engine sites.

“There is no clear consensus among search engine users, but 12-15s are more likely to respond that results are ranked on their usefulness or relevance (37%) or their truthfulness (32%) than they are to respond that websites pay money to be at the top of the list (14%).”

With the rise of importance of search engines and the power they now hold, this is perhaps hardly surprising. SEO is a complex art; I wonder how many adults would be able to explain exactly how sites are ranked.

But then again, as long as they find what they are looking for, does it really matter and does anyone really care?

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I love my PVR. It lets me record anything and watch it whenever I want. Except on a Wednesday evening when Twitter ruins everything. There I am, working hard late into the evening and, without thinking, I check in with Twitter to see what’s happening (read: procrastinate). And there it is, too late: “xx has been fired”

Twitter ruins The Apprentice for me. Every week.

But, even though the good ‘ol PVR may buck the trend, this is quickly becoming the way of the world. We are living in a real-time, uber-connected society where if something happened yesterday, it’s ancient history. The real-time, social web is here.

And two developments in the world of search over the last week have merely increased this mindset.

On Tuesday, Google announced a new feature called Search Options:

“a collection of tools that let you slice and dice your results and generate different views to find what you need faster and easier.”

The new tool, which appears at the top left of every search, allows you to refine search results by criteria including format (e.g. videos. forums, reviews) and time of creation (e.g. past 24 hours, past week, past year).

This would allow a user to search for particular forum posts written in the last 24 hours for example – very useful and a great example of the real-time, social web.

The second development is, at this stage, more of a rumour, but is equally fascinating. According to Cnet, Twitter will soon begin indexing the pages that users refer to in their tweets and including these in search results performed on the site at search.twitter.com. As Cnet notes:

“This will make Twitter Search a much more complete index of what’s happening in real time on the Web and make it an even more credible competitor to Google Search for people looking for very timely content.”

The two announcements clearly reflect the success of each company. Google wants a piece of Twitter (as buying it clearly isn’t going to happen yet) and Twitter is eyeing some of Google’s search pie for its monetisation plans.

They are both exiting developments, and there are some key considerations as a result for businesses and brands:

1. Updated content is vital, static websites are history – blogs, news, forums, social media activity will all give you more chance of being included in ‘recent searches’
2. Multimedia is more important than ever – Google’s inclusion of video as a search option, combined with the time search option is particularly telling
3. The echo-chamber is growing – with the real-time, social web, problems can become disasters in minutes, so be prepared and ready for the unexpected

As for me, I just need to modify my viewing habits!

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So, the company with the motto “don’t be evil” that we all love to love, celebrates its 10th birthday today and the media are certainly making sure that we all know about it!

Amongst the various soliloquies all marveling at the company’s rapid growth and increasing dominance, there is a great piece by Guardian tech-supremo Charles Arthur who speculates on what the next 10 years holds for the company.

However, the aspect of all this that interests me most is the way Google structures itself.

In his article, Charles mentions that “companies develop a lot less in their second decade than their first”. This might be true, but with Google the underlying development ethos suggests it may buck the trend.

As clever as the algorithm is, Google knows that the skills of its employees are paramount. They are supported by unbeatable working environments and employee benefits. Google nurtures these skill for the betterment of the company and its products through the ‘innovation time off’ scheme. This allows developers and engineers to spend 20% of their time (i.e. one day a week) working on their own projects (see some of them here).  Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense are examples of Google services that originated through this developmental process. It is not the first (or last) company to implement this working ethos but this has played a huge part in the company’s success to date.

For me this is the true, underlying symbol of Google’s greatness: their commitment to innovation.

Can they keep it going? We will have to see. Chrome is a massive development and I agree with Charles that Android will dominate and could be the cornerstone of their future (I still believe that ‘mobile’ is the new digital frontier and no-one is dominating…yet).

Google is a company that excites and as long as it keeps innovation and skillful employees at its heart, the future is surely rosy…

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