Posted by: Caitlin Diehl, Marketing Coordinator

With technology advancing as fast as ever and a new year upon us, marketers should expect a number of changes in Google and the other top search engines. In their attempts to stay at the forefront of innovation, these engines are going to be coming out with some new and enhanced features to keep searchers (and search engine marketers) coming back.

Google has been testing expandable paid search (or PPC) ads that allow a company to display not only their text ads, but also small product images and their locations. These ads are still being tested, but it’s a good bet that they will be formally introduced in upcoming months. If ads are expanded, marketers will be able to fight for that top position and the extra space that comes with the image areas.

Employees at Google are working overtime to change the essence of searches. A goal for 2009 is to turn the idea of search into a more behavioral concept. The recent capability offered by Google SearchWiki, allowing users to independently re-rank search results, gives users more control and might eventually play into tailoring search results to them. If you haven’t heard about SearchWiki, read this blog: Customize your search experience with Google’s SearchWiki. This could change the way marketers use Google. If the majority of users have personalized results, new companies or new search engine optimization (SEO) plans could require more marketing dollars or fine-tuned strategies to get their listings to stay at the top. Marketers will certainly be working their hardest to make sure their ads really do appeal to the needs of their target consumers.

Google will also be putting more effort into video and Flash, working to crawl those features more accurately, so marketers using these rich content formats should be on the watch for changing results.

For 2009, the search engines will most certainly be focused on innovating. Google will continue to lead the way, while Yahoo!, MSN Live and the others fight to stay as close behind as possible. It will definitely be a race for originality and new ways to appeal to both consumers and search engine marketers.