Don’t get me wrong, I love paid search. It’s my specialty. It’s logical, predictable, and organized, which appeals to my OCD nature. Social media and mobile may be the next “big things,” but from my vantage point, they’re still very nebulous and unorganized. Give me a basic paid search campaign any day, and I’ll sculpt it into something that will make you some money.

That being said, I can’t help but feel paid search as a whole is getting a little stale. The past several years have seen lots of new ideas and innovations—improved targeting, more control, the capability for real-time changes—the list is actually kind of long. However, recently it seems like every time I hear about a new paid search feature from any of the major engines I get a strange feeling of déjà vu.

Take Yahoo’s recent inclusion of favicons in paid search ads. For those that don’t know, favicons are the snazzy little icons that appear in your address bar next to the http when you visit a website. Taking your site’s favicon and putting it next to the display URL really makes your paid search ad stand out on the page, and helps reinforce your brand:

Neiman Marcus Search Ad

This is a great idea for improving paid search—just like it was when Google tested the exact same thing six months ago.

As another example, take a look at the brand new ad format Google is current beta testing, “Ads Sitelinks.” This feature allows you to add four quicklinks below your paid search ad to let users navigate deeper into the site with a single click:

Ebay.com Search Ad

This is a fantastic idea for segmenting traffic and increasing conversion rate by taking a searcher whose query was very generic and allowing them to choose what portion of your site they’re most interested in. But I can’t help thinking it’s somewhat familiar….where could I have seen something like that before….a Yahoo SSP listing, perhaps?

Ebay.com Sitelinks in the Google SERPs

Yes, you saw it here first. Google is now officially stealing ideas from Yahoo. Sure, both Google and Yahoo offer quicklinks in their natural listings, but until now, Yahoo was the only one to offer them in a CPC ad format. A good idea is a good idea, but I get a little worried when Google’s exciting new feature is something Yahoo has been offering for the past two years.

Yahoo unveils paid search Geo-targeting…..which Google has been doing for years. Microsoft adCenter releases a program that allows you to download campaigns and upload changes from your desktop….just like AdWords. Microsoft’s new Bing features “search within search”….which Google tested last year (granted, Microsoft’s version is much better than Google’s).

I’m not complaining about each engine’s learning from its competitors and “borrowing” ideas that work. I just can’t help but wonder where the new ideas are. What’s the next big thing for paid search? In the past six months I’ve seen massive improvements in content networks, media networks that can target to hit any metric, and social media finally start to come of age. Paid search had a head start on all of these programs, but does that mean its feature set has already peaked?

Interactive marketing is projected to encompass 21% of all marketing spend by 2014….but by then, what percentage of that spend will be for paid search?

Maybe I should get busy learning how to run a social media campaign.