My effort to find more information about vertical search has proven to be road full of vague speak and unclear definitions. As I mentioned before, I think we now know: What is Vertical Search? However, part of those definitions included providing the users with relevant and precision results.
The beauty and curse of vertical search IS the precision targeting. Vertical search engines can weed out the excess and take users directly to the relative results. However, that precision can turn into a problem.
For example, let’s look at a Kayak.com search. Kayak is a leader in the vertical search travel market.
Scenerio: Traveler wants to go on a vacation to Destin, Florida from Nashville, TN. Where do they start? Where are the beach condo deals? Where are the specials?
It sounds simple enough, but let’s look at Kayak.com. If we go to Kayak.com, in the header we notice Flights, Hotels, Cars, Vacations, and various other features. Since it’s a vacation, it makes sense to click on a vacation. Plus, Flights, Hotels and Cars would not apply.
Kayak Vertical Search
Problem: Kayak only works if you have an airport. Destin does not have an airport? The traveler would probably not fly from Nashville to Destin. It’s a driving destination.
Kayak No Airport
Kayak.com has automatically eliminated one of the biggest beach destinations in the United States from their results. Their precise search with airport codes has eliminated the broad search that would result in Destin.
Of course, that’s just one example. Kayak is not alone. There are many vertical search engines that have made their search too exact and eliminating the user’s intent.
When more search engines are moving toward broad and linguistic searching, vertical search engines seem to be going the other way. They are not intuitive enough to determine the consumers need.
Look for more Vertical Search posts over the next several weeks
Tags: Travel, vertical search
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