Discovery vs. Search – A Massive Opportunity!

I dont know how to play Poker.

So, I searched for ‘ How to Play Poker’ on Google.

As expected, the results made a lot of ‘relevant sense:

Now, assuming that I LEARNT Poker and I wanted to get down into the game, I went ahead and typed ‘Great Poker Games to Play’ on Google.

Hmmm…… The results seem a bit confusing.

Adding to the trouble is that there is a compelling section on the Right Hand Side that also competes with the Left Hand Side and makes me make a rather difficult (or multiple) choice/s to click upon.

In my humble opinion, the new BIG wave is DISCOVERY that will obviously be BUILT on Search.

Fundamentally, its the difference between a Library and a Books store. A Library is where every book you want is available, but you have to know WHICH book you want and then just methodically go and get that book. A book store on the other hand tells and recommends WHAT books you should buying and then simply placing the books in front of you to pick up and head for the cashier.

Some food for thought:

– Given that the web has dramatically gotten ‘stuffed’ with content by all kinds of sources, getting to WHAT is easy (SEARCH) but getting to GOOD stuff (DISCOVERY) is now the call of the hour.

– Nothing explains this better than the way the iTunes and Android App stores behave. iTunes has given DISCOVERY much more priority over SEARCH, while Google being Google gives Search more priority than Discovery.

– So assuming that I have an Android phone and I want to play Poker Apps, I wish I could go to someplace that was the Master CURATOR of the BEST Poker Apps on Android. All that App (or even Portal) would do would rank and list the best poker games on the Android Platform itself and then LEAD me to those Game pages that I could then directly download. Hence the concept of building Discovery on Search.

– As an Entrepreneur, I believe there is a massive opportunity in building a scalable business around Discovery. Choose any platform and then choose a category (A sport, a field in Literature (say Poems), Gadgets) etc and then curate the best content in that category on that platform. Consumers will come for the QUALITY and TRUTHFULNESS of the choices made available and hence will make that ‘discovery’ destination very popular. The Business Model is that since most content is now chargeable to consumers as paid apps, so the app guys will be happy to Incentivize downloads coming via recommendation.

The central thought is that Great Content is now being lost in the Sea of Confusion. Just be the lighhouse and serve the consumer and the content makers!

Or to put it in perspective – Make me Choose between the Right Hand Side and the Left Hand Side of a Google Search!

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