Moving from search to discovery : What's the impact for lawyers?

Imagine not having to key in what you are looking for, but discovering things you are interested in based on your contributions on the Internet and the relationships you’ve established via social media and social networking. That may not be too far away per Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt.

As reported by Susan Campbell, Schmidt, speaking last week at TechCrunch Disrupt, highlighted that while Google Instant predictive search technology, already in use, helps shave an average of two seconds off users’ queries, the next step is “autonomous search.”

Augie Ray, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research, nails Schmidt’s real point, that being that ‘autonomous search’ is a fancy term that means ‘discovery.’

As you look into the future, the distinction between ‘search’ and ‘discovery’ gets muddy. While it sounds like science fiction to suggest that technology can help search for things you don’t even yet know you want, the opportunities to improve human discovery are very real. Combining a person’s context—where they are, who they’re with—with their past opinions and actions and the opinions and actions of others can create tremendous value and relevance.

More evidence that Google is headed towards ‘discovery’ is Google Social Search which displays ‘results from people in your social circle’ at the bottom of your search results page. Per Google, ‘Google Social Search’ is a feature designed to help you discover relevant content from your social circle, a set of online friends and contacts.

What’s the impact for lawyers? Imagine while working on a transaction or brief, you’re presented with information from blogs and other social media published or shared by other lawyers you trust. Or consumers of legal services, whether a corporate executive or consumer, while researching a matter having legal implications, being presented with what lawyers serving their industry or locale have expressed on the subject.

This sort of discovery will be framed by a combination of your social connections and your Internet contributions, whether that contribution be a blog post or information shared via social media. To be seen and have context by which you or something you’ve said can be discovered by people you’ll need to be active in social media and on social networks.

Ray’s right that no matter what you call it, the result is more empowered consumers and greater value in earned media. And what will matter will be authentic, genuine, and valuable, not paid for, advocacy.