In The Social Media Mind I detailed how much I love street markets and how I try, whenever possible, to experience them. There are many reasons for that, that go way beyond the purely social or cultural ones.

Search is a ubiquitous technology. That means that its use, while intentional, is mostly subconscious. We search for things using Google on our devices. And our search queries, in their entirety, fall into one of three categories:

Telling stories is something all people, everywhere, love to do. My dad used to tell tales of his fishing trips on rubber dinghies which to me, hearing his recounting and having actually been there, bordered on the fictitious.

Writing is a stupendous thing. I type something on my laptop in English and through the magic of the internet and Google translate people in other countries who don’t even speak English can access what I’ve written, understand it; decode it inside their heads using their own perception as a filter and then, build on it by adding their own abstract thoughts to it.

Running at some 355 slides long the Mary Meeker report, compiled by its eponymous author, has become something of a go-to Bible when it comes to spotting developing trends. This year it’s no exception. Because 2017 is going to be a decisive point where a number of new trends will disrupt established industries it’s worth looking at six particular issues that the report identifies and their impact on your marketing.

The poster child for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) happens to also be “the most notoriously corrupt company in business history”. Enron whose name is now a byword for corporate greed, corruption and deceit on a truly remarkable scale, was also the deserving recipient of a climate protection award from the EPA, and a corporate conscience award from the Council on Economic Priorities.

Trust is a means through which we navigate the future. If, every time we left our house in the morning, entered a retailer’s premises or engaged in an online transaction, we were faced with a wall of unknowns, the state of uncertainty and fear it’d generate would paralyze us.

In the days when going online meant either staying home and staring at our desktop monitor or going to work and logging in at a desk machine search was the Google.com interface and its instantly recognizable “ten little blue links” format. 

I’ve been writing about semantic search and ranking well on the web for so long that I forget that not everyone is on the same understanding when it comes to search.

There is the classic scenario where a customer brings in a faulty device just a day out of warrantee. Or a clearly worn item is being returned for a refund. Both of these cases usually result in the person in the role of Customer Service failing to live up to the title of the position.