Instead of surfacing a list of blue web links, the new Google search engine, will also present more facts and direct answers to search queries at the top of the results page.

By employing ‘semantic search technology’, the world’s most popular search engine is going to endure its biggest makeover yet, as it attempts to stay ahead of the curve and maintain its spot as the market leader.

The changes, which will see more answers, rather than just web links, surface on each search results page, resemble Wolfram Alpha’s approach, a British computational search engine which tries to answer queries, rather than supply a list of websites.

Google now seems to moving towards the same model and may soon begin providing one answer to a search query, instead of thousands of links to different sites.

Since the rise of Twitter and information updates in real-time, Google has been trying to update its core search service, to make it as relevant and timely to each user.

New research about digital marketing trends published today shows that social media engagement is rated as both the top priority and most exciting opportunity for companies this year.

But while the fourth Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing, published by Econsultancy in association with Adobe, shows a huge appetite for social media programmes, there is a worrying lack of commitment to investment in associated analytics and measurement. 

Research for this report found that, along with content optimisation, social media engagement is rated as the top priority for digital marketers out of a range of digital-related marketing activities and disciplines.

Asked to indicate their top three priorities for the year ahead, companies surveyed by Econsultancy and Adobe found that these areas will be more important in 2012 than other disciplines including conversion rate optimisation, mobile optimisation and content marketing.

Social media analytics lagged behind in ninth place. 

More than 600 companies surveyed for this report were also asked about the ‘most exciting’ digital-related opportunities for their organisations in 2012. 

More than half of client-side respondents (54%) said that social media engagement featured among the three most exciting opportunities, way ahead of mobile optimisation (38%) and content optimisation (37%). Again, social analytics is much further down the pecking order, this time in eighth place.

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8995-social-media-engagement-is-the-top-priority-for-digital-marketers?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Repeat after me: Useful, Relevant, Timely, Useful, Relevant, Timely, Useful, Relevant….