It seems inevitable: The future of search will rely less on algorithms and more on actual people. While many experts believe that a completely human-controlled search engine is impractical (not to mention subjective), they do agree that the next wave of search technology may combine human intervention and algorithms to generate more relevant results. The SEO community should really start preparing for Search 4.0 – the next step after universal search .

Start of something big

The signs are everywhere. Google has introduced “Personalized Search” which lets users incorporate their individual preferences in the search results. A number of startups have been toying around with the concept, including Wikia and Mahalo . But just how far along is this technology, and does it really have any chance of replacing algorithms?

Testing the waters: Google vs Mahalo

We wanted to see how good human-powered search engines already are, so we gave Mahalo a try and compared the relevancy of its results to Google’s. Here’s what we found out:

1. For more widely-used search terms like SEO, Mahalo returned relevant results. We assume that this is because Mahalo is currently working on the top 50,000 search terms, and “SEO” is one of them. Google returns very relevant results for the search string SEO as well, so that’s one point for each of them.

2. We tried a more industry-specific search term that many webmasters search for: “free links.” Mahalo returned a page saying “We haven’t written a result page for “free links” yet” and instead gave us “Free Translation Resources.” That’s pretty irrelevant. Google’s algorithms, meanwhile, returned very pertinent results, including FreeRelevantLinks.Com . So far: Google 2, Mahalo 1.

3. Finally, we decided to use a niche term: “travel purses.” This is quite specific, and we wanted to know how Mahalo would handle such a query. Google did very well, serving up websites that contain comprehensive information and shopping guides on travel purses, including big, editorial content websites like About.Com and PickyGuide.Com . Mahalo, meanwhile, gave us “Juicy Couture Purses” – a brand of handbags that aren’t’ necessarily travel bags, so it was rather irrelevant. The final score: Google 3, Mahalo 1.

The verdict

As looming Search 4.0 may seem, it’s not yet here – and it may take more than just a few years to achieve a synthesis of algorithms and human-edited search. The technology is at its infancy, and there’s a lot of room for improvement. Still, Search 4.0 cannot be ignored. It’s coming – and the SEO industry needs to prepare for it. Once again, relevance and quality of content will separate the good sites from the thin, spammy affiliates. It’s time to build resource libraries .