Sep

What is Vertical Search?

This is the start of a series of articles I will post on Vertical Search.

Vertical search is a popular buzzword in the search community now. Over the next several weeks I plan to examine many of the aspects of vertical search. Topics will include, but not be limited to the following:

Is vertical search worth it?
Who does vertical well?
Do consumers use it?
Is it all hype?

Let’s start with the obvious question: What is vertical search?

Below is what a few sites say about vertical search.

Wikipedia – Vertical search, part of a larger subgrouping known as “specialized” search, is a relatively new tier in the Internet search industry consisting of search engines that focus on specific slices of content.

InfoWorld.com - Unlike their general-purpose cousins, …, vertical search engines contain information in their indexes about a specific topic.

Blizzard Internet Marketing - Vertical search engines are specialty search engines aimed at visitors interested in a particular area while enabling advertisers to target focused audiences.

The ultimate goal of vertical search is relevancy. Consumers searching for a hotel on a hotel vertical search site are guaranteed hotels. Very often consumers are allowed to shop and compare those results too. The clutter of irrelevancy is gone.

From an advertiser standpoint, more relevance means higher conversion and click-through rate. Thus, a better return on investment for advertisers.

Below are a few example of vertical search.

Jobs: