Two reports that I read recently set me thinking.

One was about online financial product searches exceeding offline search for the first time ever in the countries in the Middle East and North Africa. In just two years, the number of people searching for banking and financial products had gone up fourfold. This, in a region where Internet penetration is a modest 25%.

The other report presented a global consulting firm’s research findings, which included among other things, the following:

• Even at a conservative guess, the value of global Internet search in 2009 exceeded US$ 780 billion

• Two thirds of this went straight back into the GDP, in other words to manufacturers and resellers

• Advertisers earned a handsome ROI of 7:1 from Internet search; the ROI of enterprises – based on time savings – was even higher

The report also identified several other ways in which Internet search can create value – not all quantifiable, but nevertheless very important to society – such as improving the relevance of information, facilitating connectivity between individuals, and enabling searchers find the right information and people to help solve a problem.

Heady stuff, really. So I started looking for what banks were doing to unlock the value in Internet search, considering that they were one of its prime beneficiaries. Unfortunately, I was unable to find anything of significance, besides mention of a few banks that were ramping up their online advertising budgets. It appeared that the online presence of most banks revolved around their websites, and only a handful of institutions were active in social media.

What could be the reason behind banks remaining passive to a trend that has such a strong bearing on their business? Is it natural cautiousness or lack of conviction in the business value potential of Internet search or something else altogether? Whatever it is, the important point is that it is still not too late.

By studying what people are looking for on the Net, banks can convert online search results into leads and leads into sales, identify customers for niche products, predict events and discover any unusual or unmet needs. Not just that, having embraced Internet search, which is a trend from the last decade, they must prepare to leverage Internet-based sharing of customer opinion, feedback and experience, which is what the future will be all about.