Google is still top of the heap when it comes to search, and keywords are still how users find what they're looking for, but some say that method has reached its limits.

"Keyword search is okay, but if the information explosion continues, we need something better," Nova Spivak told TechCrunch.

Spivak, who founded Radar Networks, thinks he has a fix on what will bring search into the next generation. According to Spivak, the answer will come from what many call the semantic web. Rather than locating information from keywords, the onus will be on publishers to adopt a set of standards that will allow the web to organize itself.

"The problem with keyword search such as Google's approach is that only highly cited pages make it into the top results," Spivak said. "You get a huge pile of results, but the page you want -- the 'needle' you are looking for -- may not be highly cited by other pages and so it does not appear on the first page. This is because keyword search engines don't understand your question, they just find pages that match the words in your question."

Will semantic search take over where keywords appear to have left off? It's hard to say. In the past few years, dozens of new theories have been floated with the aim of improving search, and Silicon Valley is littered with startups prompting everything from guided search to natural language.

Udi Manber, Google's VP in charge of search quality, isn't so sure the next-generation of search tactics will replace keywords. According to Manber, semantic search and natural language queries will be used to buttress the next iteration of search.