Vertical Search at InfoCommerce
One of the hot buzzwords of 2006 has been vertical search.
I've been asked moderate the Vertical Horizons panel at the upcoming InfoCommerce Conference, October 10-12 in Philadelphia. The panelists will include:
- Shannon Holman, Director, Content Strategy & Development for American Lawyer Media
- Jeffrey Dearth, Partner, DeSilva & Phillips
- Han Huang, Director, Product Management for FindGuru (formerly ReedLink), Advantage Business Media
The focus of the panel will be on various business models for vertical search and why content companies are particularly well-suited to deliver vertical search. We'll also explore what it takes to deliver a compelling vertical search solution.
I'd appreciate your and ideas on vertical search. What issues would you like to see the panel address? What markets do you think are currently underserved by search? Where do you think the opportunities might lie?
I hope to see you in Philadelphia.
I'm curious as to why you say "vertical search" is one of the hot buzzwords. Weren't "vortals" all the rage around 1999?
Posted by: Glenn Fannick | October 04, 2006 at 10:45 PM
Glenn,
It's true, vertical search is not new. In fact, Alacra launched its Portal B in 1999, just before Google began to take off.
However, the past year or two has shown a resurgence in vertical search, with many new companies taking hold and/or getting big funding, including consumer offerings like Kayak, Indeed, Simply Hired, Trulia, Retrevo, Healthline and others and b2b products like Findguru/Reedlink, KnowledgeStorm, Scirus and more.
I think that the market, after a number of years of not knowing how to deal with Google, has learned that the huge Google Ecosystem creates many opportunities to leverage Google in vertical search, whether for traffic via SEO/SEM, technology (using Google Search Appliance) or revenues with Google's ad network.
Just as knowledge management has been reborn in some of the web 2.0 applications like Wikis, vertical search is going through a bit of a rebirth leveraging easy and inexpensive technology (though not nearly as hyped as the former).
--Barry
Posted by: Barry Graubart | October 05, 2006 at 06:35 AM